


Mass Effect: The Reality Merge - Book 1

by Phil_Scades



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Action, Adventure, Gen, Prelude, Self insertion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 15:55:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2738309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phil_Scades/pseuds/Phil_Scades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fan Fiction is fun, isn't it? Nothing more, though. Just fun.<br/>For me, Fiction becomes brutal Reality, as suddenly I'm being thrown into a world that is the image of a game and yet isn't at all...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So. Hey. My first story here. After sticking aroung on FFnet, I thought I'd give this a try, too. Updates will come irregular, - I have a life, after all - but in general, when one Chapter comes, at least two follow. 
> 
> For now, the disclaimer is in order.
> 
> I do not own 'Mass Effect', it's characters or settings. They are trademarks of EA Games and Bioware and belong to them. (Honour to you, Bioware, for creating such a great universe.)
> 
> Consequently, I will add disclaimers in relevant chapters introducing other characters I do not own.
> 
> I will also add claimers for characters I created myself, since I do own those. I will do so at the end of the relevant chapter, rather than in the beginning, for reasons of spoilers.
> 
> Again, writing this is my way of showing respect for the great story and world Bioware created.
> 
> And now, have fun! :)

 

                                                                                                  **Let the Games Begin**

 

 

Do you know the feeling, that something really, really bad is just about to happen? The one, that immediately tempts you to voice this infamous star wars quote? One day I had that exact feeling from the very moment I got out of bed.

Yet nothing happened. I went to university, got bored as hell and went home afterwards.

Now, if I could have actually made it home, everything would have been alright...

I was walking down the pathway to the train station, when I suddenly felt a detonation. I stumbled backward, repulsed by some kind of... energy wave? I looked around, dumbfounded. If the city hadn't decided to place non-lethal shock mines around its university, this definitely wasn't normal. Which they hadn't.

The ripples going through my surroundings didn't soothe my uneasiness very well either. They did, however, arouse my (morbid) curiosity. What would happen to a human if touched by those waves?

Would he disintegrate, just get dizzy, or would nothing happen at all? Sadly, there weren't any other people around, leaving me with a dire lack of guinea pigs.

…

Ah hell, who cares? I shrugged and walked right into one of the ripples.

Instantly, my vision became blurred and a wave of nausea assaulted me.

Regretting my impulsive behavior, I stepped back, desperately trying to get out of the phenomenon's reach, but it was futile. Instead my vision blacked out completely and I felt a sudden, growing tug in my gut. Uh-oh, that couldn't be good, could it?, I felt that feeling I had since this morning edging into the front of my consciousness. Of course it couldn't. The tug exploded, as if I were accelerating rapidly, and my vision came back... or it didn't, since all I saw was a vortex of impossibly bright colours, underlined by an unidentifiable noise, and don't forget the marvellous rain of lightning surrounding me.

Seriously? What the hell is going on?!Did reality just become unstable?

Reaching new heights of bafflement, my mind frantically tried to find an explanation for what was happening to me – while a small part was wondering why I was still even alive. Before any of them could come to a satisfying solution, though, the tug of acceleration inside my gut started to abate.

With a voluminous "BOOOOOM!" Reality came back into focus around me, just as the Forest beneath me.

What? Confusion formed in my mind, directly followed by one word.

Drek.

Then I hit the ground.

Ouch, that hurt. Damn it. I clenched my fist, feeling the grass underneath my hands, groaning.

Wait a second. Grass? Hadn't the paveway been, well... paved?

And why had I seen a forest prior to my crash?

I slowly got up, and looked around.

Where the fragging hell am I?

The first of all things wrong, was the time of day. It was evening. I had just been on my way home from university courses, it should have been midday, not evening. And the air. The air smelled different, as if I was deep in the forest, untouched by human air pollution. The large trees around me certainly encouraged that theory. Those huge boulders over there didn't exactly seem civilized either...

Hm? The trees and boulders... haven't I seen those before?

I furrowed my brows.I definitely wasn't in Kansas anymore. Hell, it probably wasn't even Earth!

But if this wasn't Earth, then where was I?

I stumbled through the trees, my gut feeling growing worse by the second... Why did all this seem so familiar?

I seemed to be in a valley, I could see mountain walls around me. As well as decidedly futuristic towers in the distance.

For a second, a notion seized hold of me, but it was hazy and disappeared instantly.

Then I saw it. A big...amphibious... something, with Gas Bags all over its body, floating peacefully around.

Drek. I knew that thing. It was a Gas Bag.

But that meant... that I had to be on Eden Prime!

I had a hard time believing it, but Gas Bags only existed on Eden Prime. Granted, Eden Prime should have been part of a game and nothing more, but the sounds of the trees moving in the wind, the smell of the forest and even the gravity, which appeared to be slightly stronger than it should have been on Earth. All that was far too detailed to be a simulation, no matter how far the military has secretly advanced science.

I slapped myself and shook my head. But when I looked again, the Gas Bag was still there, floating through the air, blissfully ignorant of the sheer impossibility of its existence.

Suppressing the desire to touch and poke the Gas Bag, I looked up and saw another marvel hovering by my side. It had a bluish-gray metallic tinge and a streamlined design. Wow, who would have thought I'd ever see a Geth recon drone in real life?

…

Crap, a Geth recon drone!

I panicked and hid behind the nearest tree, adrenalin coursing through my veins. A crazy grin creeping up my face, I couldn't suppress a laugh. Eden Prime! I am on Eden Prime! In the Mass Effect Reality! This is great!

The happiness evaporated as soon as it came, though. Pull yourself together, Phil! I scolded myself. I am on Eden Prime and I just saw a Geth recon drone. That means Saren is currently raiding the excavation site of the Prothean beacon. Shock froze my legs, as I heard a series of shots, followed by dead silence.

This is not good at all. I have to get out of here!

Fear soaked my body and my thoughts were racing. Yes I had to get out of there, if not, I would run into the Geth and they would kill me.

But Saren's presence also meant that Shepard and his team would make an appearance sooner or later. Could I really run away? If I did, the Chances of me teaming up with Shepard would drop close to zero. Did I want that?

I shook my head. No.

I knew what was going on here, probably better than anybody else in the whole universe. I knew that Shepard's chances of even beating Saren were low, not to mention her chances of winning the fight against the Reapers in the long run. If I cowardly ran away I'd have to live with the knowledge of a presumably very abrupt end. If I didn't run away but instead went around, looking for Shepard, I'd probably get killed either now, or later, after joining him. Or her. I didn't know which gender Shepard had in this reality, after all.

Bottom line: I die regardless of what I do.

I sighed deeply. There really wasn't much of a choice. No matter how I might try to justify it, I would never forgive myself for running away. And if I was going to die, I sure as hell wasn't going to go down quietly.

Having made up my mind, I carefully made my way out of the woods, constantly checking my surroundings. After a short time I left the trees behind me, coming upon a clearing where the surrounding walls opened up into a small passage.

Some voice deep inside my head whispered how ideal this place would be for an ambush, but I couldn't make out any sign of Geth.

Of course, that didn't mean anything, as gunshots behind me soundly proved my theory – when suddenly someone shouted: "Get down!"

Before I could react, a body slammed into mine, throwing me down.

I hit the ground – which hurt. Again. – and cursed hoarsely.

The sight of two Geth recon drones getting shot down silenced me promptly, though.

"You okay, kid?", the person beside me asked, still catching her breath.

She got up, looking around frantically, while I still sat there on the ground, mouth agape. It was Ashley. I had just seen Ashley Williams shooting down two recon drones in midair. I had always been impressed by that shot, but actually seeing it was on a completely different level.

"You dumb, or what? Get up, we have to get to cover!"

And she was just as foul-mouthed as ever.

Still at a loss for words, I got up and followed her into the protection of a man-tall boulder just in front of us. Pressing herself against the stone, Ashley cautiously peered behind it, immediately recoiling, putting away her pistol and gripping her assault rifle.

"Damn, what are those things doing to him?" she muttered breathlessly.

Of course. She was talking about one of the colonists the Geth put on the dragon's teeth. I guess I better stay behind cover, getting shot now wouldn't exactly help Shepard. Shouldn't they have noticed us already, though? When I came upon this clearing, I didn't even think about looking for cover. Shrugging, I disregarded that thought. Hopefully Shepard and Kaidan would take care of those Geth units over there soon enough. They should be close by.

Ashley wasn't going to wait for them, however. Even with her whole platoon eradicated she wasn't caving in. Not even close. She peered around the boulder we were ducking against, and fired a volley of rounds into the Geth, alarming them to our presence in the process. Or, to hers, precisely. Which wasn't much better, since I was hiding behind the same cover...

The Geth returned fire and I was getting worried again, when I saw two soldiers ducking behind one of the chest high walls at the edge of the clearing. One of them took aim with what looked like one of the shotgun models they used in Mass Effect, and fired a mini rocket at the Geth while the other made a thrusting gesture and threw a blue energy ball. Exhaling I concluded that the one with the Shotgun had to be Shepard and the other one Kaidan. The sound of an explosion, and a Geth powering down followed suit, taking care of our predicament.

They then started moving towards us, examining us carefully.

Checking for enemies, Ashley came out of cover. Meanwhile I saw that my guess had been right, it was indeed Shepard and Kaidan. A female Shepard and Kaidan, to be precise. From what I saw of Shepard's face through the opening of her helmet she appeared to roughly match the appearance of the default Shepard. The one from Mass Effect 3, I should mention.

After realizing the coast was clear, Ashley turned to Shepard and thanked her. Shepard dismissed it and introduced herself, which had Ashley saluting before she managed to finish her sentence.

"Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212, glad you're here! You part of the relief troops, ma'am?"

Shepard nodded.

"In a way. We got your distress call. Are you wounded, Williams?"

"Nothing serious, just a few scrapes and burns," came the pained reply. "The others weren't so lucky…Oh man…" Ashley started pacing around nervously," We were patrolling the perimeter, when the attack hit. We barely managed to get off the distress call, but they cut off our communications. I've been fighting for my life ever since."

"Where's the rest of your unit?" Kaidan asked, worriedly.

"We tried to fall back to the beacon, but walked into an ambush...", Ashley looked down, "I don't think any of the others...I think I'm the only one left..." Resignation reverberated in her voice, even if her face stayed remarkably straight.

Looking at Shepard, I saw her eyebrows slightly knit. Was I jumping to conclusions,or was she a sole survivor?

"This isn't your fault, Williams, You couldn't have done anything to save them", she said, her voice throaty. Nope, no jumping, that was the line of the sole survivor.

"Yes, ma'am..."Ashley's reply came out a lot less energetic than in the game, yet she cleared her throat and continued. "We held our position as long as we could. Until the Geth overwhelmed us."

"The Geth haven't been seen outside the Perseus' Veil since over two hundred years. Why are they here now?" Kaidan interrupted quizzically.

Ash shrugged. "They must have come for the beacon, the dig-site is close. Just over that rise. It could still be there"

Shepard looked in the indicated direction pondering something.

"We could use your help Williams."

Ashley saluted grimly, not hesitating for a second. "Aye Aye, ma'am. It's time for payback"

"You're not hurt are you?" Shepard continued after a short nod, suddenly looking at me.

Finally taking note of me, hm? I quickly checked my body.

"Uh... No, doesn't seem like it. I'm fine. Except a major headache, but I'm afraid that's not the Geth."

"You better find some place to hide, it's dangerous out here. You should be fairly safe in between those trees back there. Just look out for drones." She pointed her head in the direction of the woods. With that, she seemed to be finished with me. "We'd better get moving, the Geth aren't going to wait for us."

Ashley gave me a brief, "Watch your back," then followed the commander and Kaidan, readying her rifle, leaving me standing there, dumbfounded yet again.

That's it? You aren't even going to ask where I came from? No weird look at my 21th century clothes? Nothing? Well not with me, Shepard. Not with me. I'm going to follow you, just so you know. Except you don't know since I'm only thinking all this, but hey, tough luck.

Besides, it was probably safest directly in her wake anyways, what with all the Geth in the vicinity concentrating on her and the squad.

So I followed them. Slowly, of course, and carefully.

Staying in cover, I watched them reach the dig site, talk between themselves – they probably got the message from Nihlus – and go up the hill.

I waited before going after them since I knew the Husks would attack and I doubted those things would be scripted to only attack Shepard and her team. It was more likely that they'd try to kill anything that moved, myself included.

When I finally went up the Hill I saw Shepard and her squad companions go down the path leading to the spaceport where they'd find Nihlus.

Getting an idea, I hurried after them, noting the dead corpses of the husks – bloody hell, were they ugly – and was just going to cut the turn ahead, when gunfire made me duck behind cover hastily.

I peered ahead, watching Shepard and her team take out a group of Geth and husks trying to kill them.

Oh look at that! Shepard just used a throw. I guessed that ruled out the soldier class for her profession. The Vanguard is the only class trained in Shotgun usage as well as biotics, after all. Nice, I always liked the Vanguard. My first five playthroughs, or so, had solely been vanguard: in part one as well as part 2. Mass Effect 3 I only played twice: once male, once female. The ending simply sucked so much that I couldn't take it any more often than that.

Speaking of Mass Effect 3, that red glowing hand thingy up in the sky just now, was that Sovereign? Drek, that thing was huge!

An explosion shook me out of my thoughts, followed by silence. I guess someone shot the detonation canisters. Good riddance.

I slowly followed Shepard, as she put her weapon away and checked out the container in which the three farmers hid. She called out to them and they opened the door to talk to them. I waited for her to finish. Then finally, she did.

And she was stopped by the second farmer, telling the one in the front, Cole was his name, I believe, to give Shepard the stuff, they had stored in the containers. Cole struggled with himself a bit, but Shepard eventually got him to hand the pistol over.

Which was exactly my cue.

I stepped out from the crate I was hiding behind and called out:

"Why don't you give me that pistol, Shepard? You do have one already, don't you?"

Everybody turned around fast, pointing their guns at me.

"Hey, hey, don't shoot. Last I checked I was organic, not synthetic." I raised my hands in surrender.

Ashley furrowed her forehead. "You? What are you doing here, didn't the Commander tell you to hide?"

A sly grin crept up my face. "Well, you didn't notice me until now, did you?"

Her dark glare wiped it away instantly.

"I figured, the safest place would be right behind you, in your shadow zone, so to speak"

"That's actually not dumb at all", mumbled Shepard surprised.

Kaidan shook his head. "You could've been hit by a stray bullet or a husk we missed. And why do you want the gun? Have you even used one before?"

I shrugged. "No, but I'm a quick learner, and under the circumstances I think I'll gladly make use of that."

Shepard cut into the conversation.

"Maybe you are, but it won't be necessary. You can hide out with Cole until the attack is over. You're not following us anymore, that's for sure."

Oh no it isn't. I'm not going to stay behind and miss the chance to get onto the Normandy. Not if I can help it.

"I don't think so", I frowned, "Something is going on down there, "– I pointed my head in the starport's direction – "something bad. And I'm not going to just sit around here, waiting for the Geth to find and kill me."

That seemed to anger her. She stepped in close to me, looking me in the eye. With me standing at 1.87m she had to look up, but that didn't stop her from being intimidating.

"You said you've never shot a gun before. Down there Death is going to wait for you. It's going to be a hot zone and neither I nor Williams nor Alenko will have the time to watch out for you. I am not going to be responsible for your death, so stay the hell up here, where it's safe."

Wow. That was impressive. And intimidating, alright.

But if I hadn't been prepared to stand up to Shepard I wouldn't even have followed her to begin with. "If you think you can scare me into backing down, you're mistaken. I'm not going to tuck tail and hide. And if I die, it won't be your responsibility, but mine. So back off" I breathed in slowly, trying to calm myself down. "You have two options: either you give me that gun and let me follow you, or you don't and I'm going to follow you anyway." I stood my ground unfazed by Shepard's aura of command trying to subdue me. I had always been bad at following orders, after all. "Your choice, Commander."

We battled it out in a staring contest, neither of us wanting to back down. That unnerving little voice in my head wanted to know what would happen, if Shepard was more renegade than I expected, but I ignored it.

"The kid got guts, we gotta give him that", Ashley threw in.

The moment passed and Shepard sighed. Shaking her head she pushed the pistol into my hand.

"Do what you want. But I'm not going to watch out for you, you got that? If you get yourself killed it's your own fault."

"Shepard, you can't bring a civilian to a battlefield!", interrupted Kaidan, shocked.

"I'm not. But he's right. It is his own decision whether to stay here or not."

Unable to argue against that, Kaidan let the discussion drop.

Satisfied I checked the pistol, while Shepard asked for the name of the smuggler's contact. Interesting. It's not a Stinger, but a M-5 Phalanx. Nice! The Phalanx had a lot more kick than the Stinger, if I was scaling the weapons from the different games correctly. It also used thermal clips, of which Cole gave me a few additional ones, and was very versatile.

Looking up I saw Shepard throwing me a troubled look, as if she knew, I'd be dead in a few moments. Shaking her head again she turned around and started to move. Kaidan ignored me falling into formation behind her. Ashley followed, but not without reminding me to keep my head down since I didn't have a shield generator.

"People have fought wars before the invention of shield generators and survived it, too," was all I replied, shrugging.

Abruptly, Shepard stopped and turned around again. "What's your name anyway?"

Uh... Good one, Shep, what am I going to call me? Definitely not my real name. At least not the last name. Oh, hey, I know!

"Philipp. Philipp Scades. Phil for short."

Shepard nodded and resumed her lead ahead.

Then followed the discussion with Powell, and the revelation of Nihlus's death. Poor guy. I always liked him. Looking at his dead body, I realized how quick things could have changed, had I met Nihlus and not Shepard. And how fast I could have died in that case. No, no matter how much I liked him, it was better this way. At least for me.

Of course Ashley nearly flipped out when she heard the smuggler's story, -especially when Shepard got him to hand over the grenades,- but the commander managed to calm her down; said he wasn't worth it. I agreed with her. Besides, he'd have a bad conscience the rest of his life, anyway.

Knowing there were going to be Geth shooting at us, by the time Shepard would be finished milking Powell, I positioned myself close to the crates. Indeed, she was interrupted by a gunshot, nearly hitting Kaidan. I immediately ducked down, while the others returned fire, getting into cover themselves. Now, Philipp, take it slow, take it easy. Let Shepard and the others take the brunt of the attack and wait for your chance...

I checked the pistol again, released its safety and peered around the corner of my cover, hoping it was at least roughly as reliable as in the games. I watched, as Ashley brought down the shields of one of the five Geth trying to rush us. Wait, weren't there only two in the game? Whatever, I didn't have time to think about it right then. I brought up my pistol, aiming carefully. Let's see… I pulled the trigger, preparing for the recoil to ruin my aim.

Bang! The shot went nowhere, and my arm hurt. That could have gone better. Well, I kind of figured that, so I shot again, and again, trying to get a feel for the gun in my hands. And then finally, with the fourth shot, I hit a Geth. It took a while, but I now I had rough feel for the gun.

Coincidentally, the one unit I managed to hit was also the last one standing and as he went down, silence surrounded us once again. Shepard and the others advanced carefully, I followed shortly behind them.

As soon as we reached the staircase, the remaining Geth attacked us. Ducking down, we ran to the other side, taking cover behind the guardrail. Thankfully it withstood the hit of a carnage attack by the destroyer defending the way to the transport we had to reach.

"I say the biotics focus on the big one, while Williams and I keep your flanks clear. Soon as it's down we can focus on the smaller units and then advance to the pathway," I commented.

Everybody stared at me.

"What? Just 'cause I've never used a firearm before doesn't mean I don't know my way around a battlefield!"

"Keep your head down and be quiet," Ashley admonished me sternly.

Kaidan measured me with his eyes, then looked at Shepard. "It's not that bad of a plan, Commander. Except the part where we have to trust him to keep our flank clear. But Williams should be able to do that alone."

I probably would have been inclined to think something rude about him, if he hadn't been right.

I was pretty sure it would take me at least a few shots more to get fully used to the Phalanx, shots which could prove fatal to us.

A second carnage, nearly shredding our cover to pieces, ended the argument. That thing had to be taken down. Immediately. Kaidan and Shepard concentrated on the destroyer, keeping him from shooting any more carnages, while Ashley watched the staircase from where the Geth units emerged. And I… watched Ashley, since there didn't seem to be a need for me.

…

No, seriously, I honestly had it quite easy. The area I had to watch was relatively small, meaning I actually had a good chance to hit the enemy. Especially after I got used to the Phalanx recoil. It wasn't all that difficult, and pretty soon I had a decent hit rate. I still had to be careful not to get shot, but somehow I managed even that.

It didn't take long until the destroyer went down and we were able to proceed forward. From that moment on, defeating the remaining Geth was a walk in the park, with all the cover and canisters around.

Having arrived at the transport, Shepard turned around, looking at me sternly, but not as dooming as before. "Are you still determined to follow us?"

I nodded, cracking a wry smile. "Yeah. Although, I guess if you decided to leave me behind now it would take me some time."

For a moment The commander actually seemed to think about it, but luckily dismissed the thought. "It's too late for that. Follow me." Turning around again, she stepped on the tram and activated the controls. I guess I hadn't performed too badly. It seemed as if she had accepted my part in this. Grinning, I stepped on as well, preparing to take on the Geth trying to set up the bombs to destroy platform two.

From then on, everything went more or less according to the game. We arrived at platform two and took out the Geth. I mostly stayed in cover, only occasionally firing my pistol, more often hitting my target than not. When we finally got to the beacon I wasn't even half as out of breath as I'd thought I would be.

While Shepard contacted the Normandy, requesting Evac, Ashley and Kaidan got closer to the beacon and I took a look around.

Damn, what's this crater? Is that where Sovereign landed? My mind couldn't quite grasp the size of the ship that had left a crater bigger than a football field simply to make room for a landing. What was it going to look like when Sovereign actually wanted to cause destruction?

Looking at that huge crater, somehow got me back to my senses. While fighting the Geth, everything else had started to seem weirdly unreal. But I was on Eden Prime, roughly 200 Years in the future of an alternate reality. Drek. The only thing worse I could imagine would have been ending up in the Shadowrun universe. Although, in that case I wouldn't have had to face a synthetic super race pushing civilization to the brink of extinction. Only super capitalistic dragons trying to pump me dry...

Was I going to die trying to stop the Reapers? Because I definitely was going to try. I couldn't just sit around waiting for the end, could I?

…

I shook my head, slapping my cheeks with both hands. No use losing myself in my thoughts now, no matter how dark my future appeared. I had to move on. One step after the other.

"Kaidan!", shouted Shepard behind me. I turned around, to see her throwing Kaidan away from the beacon, just to be targeted by it herself and have the vision implanted into her mind, the significance of which, I knew all too well. The beacon deactivated after the message was relayed. Shepard collapsed unconscious and Kaidan and Ashley ran to her, contacting the Normandy, telling Joker to hurry.

Yeah, that wasn't what I meant with moving on, Shep. I remained still, again painfully reminded of what lay ahead of me and the galaxy I somehow ended up in.


	2. What?

                                                                                                    **What?**

So here I was, on board the Normandy. I had expected to argue with Anderson about it a lot, but, to my surprise,he agreed to take me to the Citadel as soon as I requested it. All he did was give me a weird glance of surprise, as if... as if he recognized me but hadn't expected to meet me here. But that was impossible, wasn't it? Yeah... it had to be me overreacting and imagining things. He couldn't possibly know me. Not even an hour ago I hadn't even existed in this reality.

Anyways, just then I was sitting at this big table in the mess area, and I had to say, I was quite impressed by the Normandy. She had a much more realistic layout, than the Normandy SR1 in the game. The ship was slightly larger than its game counterpart, yet the interior was a lot more cramped. The corridors were just about wide enough to let a Krogan through without getting claustrophobia, which was probably a good thing, as Wrex, a Krogan, was going to join the crew shortly. I saw a restroom underneath the staircases as well as a lot more lockers, stretching along the outer wall of the deck. In the mess area I found an actual, retractable kitchen fitted into the wall adjoining the elevator. I had always wondered how the crew had gotten their nourishment; space food seemed far too outdated to me.

The biggest difference was the relaxation deck though. Situated between the cargo and the crew deck, it had a few quarters, supposedly reserved for the officers, and one larger room.

That one held a television, a few couches and some weird desk-thingy which looked a bit like a mixture of a table tennis and a foosball desk. I guessed it was able to change form to enable the crew to have more than just one game to relax with. Nice idea, actually. Finally the Engineering Deck had an added workout area, trading it off for the second entrance to the engineering area.

And I was on this real starship, on my way to the citadel, the central hub of the galaxy. Even now that things had quieted down a bit, I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I wasn't on Earth anymore. I wasn't even in the 21st century.

What was I going to do from now on?

Even if I intended to help Shepard in her fight against the Reapers, how was I supposed to be of any help? All I was good at was physics and philosophy. And even then, both of that would have greatly changed and developed in the 200 years I had been catapulted forth in time. If I wanted to become useful through those talents I would have a lot of work to do. That would take a lot of time -time I didn't have.

No, for now, all I could do was become a soldier and use my knowledge of the future to prevent a worst case scenario. Then again, who would believe me if I went and told them 'Hey, guys, I know what's going to happen to you all, because I played a game once, 200 years in the past,'?

Yeah, fat chance they'd buy that.

But what other option did I have? I couldn't constantly lie to them. Even if I somehow found a way to cope with that, eventually, they'd find out. And then things would get ugly.

I was just about to convince myself to stand up and tell them about my knowledge, when I recalled the beginning of Mass Effect 2.

My mind froze.

How was I going to break that to Shepard and the Team? How was I going to make them understand that there probably was no other way, that the collectors would find Shepard sooner or later no matter what we did?

I took a deep breath to calm myself.

First of all, I didn't even know whether things would go down as they did in the game at all. In the worst case my telling them would act as a self-fulfilling prophecy and cause exactly what I was trying to prevent. Or cause something even worse than that.

I shook my head. No, I couldn't tell them, not yet at least.

For now I would have to find a way to stay on the Normandy and wait. With time I would be able to confirm my knowledge of the future and then I would tell them.

Having settled my mind as much as I could in my current situation, I came back from the world inside my head and became aware of my surroundings again. I wondered how much time had passed and if we would do the relay jump to the citadel soon. I'd love to be up there in the helm when we did.

Right on cue Chakwas, Kaidan and Ashley came out of the med-bay. The two soldiers went their separate ways while Chakwas joined me at the table.

"So you are the daring youth who stood up to Commander Shepard " she recognized me with a curious smile.

I smiled back and nodded. "Guilty as charged."

Her smile faded and she looked at me inquiringly. "Why would you do that? You could have gotten yourself killed out there."

Looking down, I wasn't sure how to answer. "I... had my reasons."

Chakwas scrutinized me for a moment but then relaxed her features. "Well, it's not my place to judge you. It appears at least the Captain saw something in you. He wouldn't have let you on board otherwise."

I didn't react to that. He definitely had seen something. The question was, what?

As if he'd been waiting for it, Anderson stepped out of the med bay, shortly followed by Shepard, who headed up to the brig. Anderson stopped in front of me. "I'd like to talk to you, Mr. Scades."

What?

I stared at him, at a loss for words.

"Yes?"

He raised his eyebrows expectantly. "In private."

I continued to stare at him until Chakwas cleared her throat.

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

Suppressing an embarrassed laugh I stood up and followed Anderson to his cabin. It was, as in the game, only rudimentarily equipped. It had a bed, a desk for working and a table in the middle, with two chairs.

After entering he went over to the small table and sat down in one of the chairs. He gestured for me to sit in the other one, then leaned forward. Under his grave expression and thorough examination I began to feel uncomfortable, when he started to speak.

"Eighteen years ago I was assigned a mission of highest importance." He paused. Was he talking about the things that happened in 'Revelation'? "If I had succeeded I would most likely have become the first human spectre." This had to be about the Mission with Saren. "But I failed and humanity had to wait until now, to get a chance like that again," he sighed. "And now again something has gone wrong and I don't know what is going to happen. But that's not what I want to talk to you about."

Anderson drew a deep breath. "I probably wouldn't even have made it out myself, if not for the warning of a certain man." I furrowed my brow. Warning? What warning? That hadn't happened in the book. Anderson looked me directly in the eye. "That man was you."

…

"What?" was all I could get out.

"You seemed a bit older, but it was definitely you."

"An older version of me appeared in your past and gave you a warning?"

"Yes."

In the hours since I had first ended up in this crazy satire of a fan-fiction, I felt stunned and flabbergasted quite often, but this one definitely took the biscuit.

"You also told me to expect this kind of reaction," Anderson mentioned, smiling slightly.

I shook my head in confusion. "But that would mean that I'm going to travel through time. And that is..." Impossible? I didn't voice that. If it was possible for me to travel through realities and cover several centuries while doing so, then it could be completely possible to travel another two decades into the past, or so. Also, this didn't simplify matters at all. Now I was even more confused. Just what was going to happen in this reality?

"You asked me to tell you this."

I raised my hands, gesturing Anderson to stop. " Wow, wait a second. Are you telling me that this future me, that warned you, told you that you would meet me again in your future but that I wouldn't know what had happened yet, because it would still be in my personal future?"

He nodded gravely. "That's correct."

My eyes widened as I started to understand the scope of what the captain was telling me.

In my future I would help him get out of the Mission on Camala alive and tell him to talk to me when he met me again. Was it just me or did this look like a textbook time paradox?

"I believe you wanted me, to tell you this, to influence you in some way." Anderson interrupted my thoughts. "But I don't know how exactly."

That put me back on my feet. He was right. I most likely did intend this to be a message to myself. Even if it was a paradox, that didn't mean there was no other sense to it. And there was basically only one thing I could have been trying to tell me: I had to trust Anderson. Honestly, I didn't have much choice by now.

"I guess I wanted to make sure I told you about how I arrived here and what I possibly know about the future."

Anderson's attention was caught. "What you know about the future?"

"What I possibly know about the future. There's a difference." Now it was my turn to take a deep breath.

"You see, I'm not from this reality. Somehow I suddenly ended up on Eden Prime. I don't exactly know how, but after what you told me, about meeting me in your past, I'm getting a hunch. That's not important, right now, though." I hesitated. "This may sound like I'm making fun of you, Captain Anderson, but I'm not"

Nodding, Anderson gestured for me to continue.

Struggling for words I tried to find the right way to say what I was about to say.

"In my time-line, it was 2014. A few years ago, I played a series of computer games called 'Mass Effect'."

Surprise lit up Anderson's eyes. "That's..."

"What you call the effect enabling you FTL travel through use of element zero, yes." I swallowed hard. "Those games' stories... were set in this galaxy. The main character was Commander Shepard. It detailed her fight against an ancient race of sentient machines trying to wipe out all civilized life in the galaxy. This mission on Eden Prime was the beginning of that fight."

Anderson was appaled. At a loss for words, he stared at me, shock distorting his features.

"Are you sure this is what's happening here as well?"

"Saren's ship, that giant hand-like thing you saw on the distress call, was a Reaper. Sovereign, Vanguard of his Species, preparing the currently most powerful civilizations for harvest. There is no other possibility, the mission went almost exactly as it did in the game. Even if there is, we can't risk not expecting them to be involved. That much I'm sure of."

Anderson put his hands together on the table, a very worried expression on his face. "I feared that. Did the Artifact, my mission eighteen years ago was about, also belong to them?"

"Yes. It was an indoctrination module. It reprogrammed Dr. Quian and made him crazed with it, to help the reapers, to become their slave."

"Indoctrination? Could it have affected Kahlee as well?", he asked alarmed. "You know about Kahlee Sanders, don't you?"

"I do", I agreed," And I don't think it affected her."

Upon hearing this, Anderson felt visibly relieved. A moment later he stiffened up again, prepared to continue to listen to me.

I, however, didn't have much more to tell him. "I would like to tell you more, but for now I'm not even sure if anything is going to happen the way I expect it. For now I'll have to wait and see. I don't want to tell you something that ends up being wrong."

The captain didn't seem to be sure whether to like that or not, but finally accepted it. "Even if you told me, I'm not sure I would like to know.", he sighed, but pulled himself together and changed the subject. "What are you going to do once we are at the citadel? We should arrive there shortly."

"I don't know. I need to get on Shepard's Team when she's hunting Saren, but I have no idea how I'm supposed to manage that."

"You mean you want to stay on the Normandy?", Anderson asked.

"Yes, basically."

He thought about it for a second. "I think I might have a solution for that problem. Fleet Admiral Hackett owes me a favor. I should be able to get him to admit you into the navy as a special forces operative. I also think you can trust him, he's a good man."

"Admiral Hackett? I know him. Good to know he exists here as well," I smiled. I had always liked Hackett.

"He was in your... game?" Anderson seemed to have some trouble coming to terms with the fact that all I knew I knew from a game. I couldn't blame him.

"Yes. The same as you. He's going to be very important in the fight against the Reapers, I hope." Our conversation was interrupted by Joker over the intercom: "Captain, we just did the relay jump."

"Good. I'm not finished here, yet, take care of docking procedure, Joker." Anderson replied.

"Understood, Captain."

The com broke off and Anderson returned his attention to me. "I don't know about me, but he does hold a lot of power in his position. I'm going to get him on a secure line and explain the situation to him as soon as we're docked. But before that, if you want to join the Alliance, there is something else to do. Dr. Chakwas will have to make a full examination of you." He stood up from his chair and gestured for me to do the same.

"Come with me, I will have her start immediately."

I was slightly worried what I had done to gain enough trust from Anderson for him to pull such a big favor to help me, but this was my best chance at getting in on the action. I followed him.

We went over to the med bay where Chakwas was working on some documents.

"Dr. Chakwas?"

She looked up from her work expectantly. "Yes, Captain?"

"I want you to do a check up of Mr. Scades. Determine whether he is fit enough to join the Alliance Navy as a special operative. If he is, report to me immediately."

Chakwas's eyes widened, but other than that she didn't show any sign of surprise. "Of course, Captain."

Anderson nodded curtly, turned around and left the med bay.

Dr. Chakwas turned back to her documents but finished up quickly. "I suppose, if I were to ask you for a reason for this sudden interest in joining us, you wouldn't be able to answer freely, Mr Scades?"

"Not exactly, I think, not at the moment, at least.", I grimaced, " Nothing beyond that I have to stay as close to the Normandy as possible, anyway."

The doctor seemed to take this in stride. "Fair enough. In any event, the captain knows what he's doing." She stood up and gestured to the medical couches lined up on the wall. " Strip down to your underwear and lie down on one of the couches, please."

I did as I was told and watched curiously as Chakwas pushed some buttons on the side of the couch and a scanning apparatus moved out of the wall touching the couches head end.

"You can call me Philipp, by the way. Or Phil, for short."

A friendly smile lightened up her face. "If you are alright with that."

"I am. I'm not old enough to be comfortable with 'Mr.' at any rate. Is that a multifunctional scanner? Is the full exam going to be over in a few minutes?" I was amused by that thought.

Chakwas seemed to share my amusement, chuckling lightly. "The first part of it, yes. I'll also have to take a blood sample from you, which I'll have to analyze."

I nodded as the scanner slowly moved down my body. " And that's going to take a while."

"Exactly. Do you have any illnesses I should know about? Any allergies or intolerances?"

I thought about it for a second.

"I have ADHD, so I received medication most of my youth, but as with most cases, the ADHD waned during puberty, so the only trace of it left is an inability to sit still. Other than that, nothing."

"ADHD? That's very rare nowadays. Didn't your parent's make use of the free genetic treatments for dispositions like that?"

I shrugged vaguely. "Apparently not."

"Well, it doesn't sound like anything stopping you from enlisting," Chakwas chuckled and turned her head to look at the screen in the wall, were the first of the data was beginning to show. "It appears you've lost some weight in the last months. Were you on a diet?"

"In a way, yes," I admitted. "A few years ago I had an accident in which my left adductor was hurt badly, so I had to stop doing sports. As a result my weight increased considerably. Recently the pain subsided, so I started to work out again."

"Yes, I see signs of new muscle tissue. Quite a lot actually. Your form isn't too bad." The scanner finished scanning me and the complete results showed up on the screen.

"From what I see here, it shouldn't be to difficult for you to undergo retrovirus therapy. Your body has a remarkable ability to build up muscle tissue. Did you do competitive sports in the past?" The doctor sounded satisfied with the results.

"Yeah, I did ballroom dance for four years and a bit of martial arts. I've had a faster build up ever since." I smiled. I had always been somewhat proud of that.

"Retrovirus therapy, though? You mean the gene therapy Alliance soldiers undergo? Is it mandatory?"

"It is. Don't worry, there hasn't been a complication in decades. The altitude of the improvement, the body imbued with the virus experiences, can vary, but it has never sunk below the minimum necessary for service."

"So it's like a super-soldier serum?" I laughed.

"Like in those twenty-first century comics?", Chakwas joined in, "Not exactly, although it has been able to improve some soldiers to the level where they were able to wrestle with Krogans."

Aha. That explains Vega's strength

"Mainly its task is to eliminate issues like that slight short-sightedness of yours and strengthen the bones and body tissue in general," she continued. "The only problem is that the therapy would normally be applied for a month..."

I listened attentively. A month? That's going to take too long.

"The Alliance has been developing a new variation of the retrovirus lately, reducing the therapy to two weeks. It is not entirely tested yet which is why the old variant is still in use, but if you are willing to be one of the test subjects, I should be able to get a batch here on the Citadel."

I didn't have to think long about it. "Of course. I don't have a month. Even two weeks could be too long."

"Then I'm going to give you the first treatment this evening," Chakwas agreed. She turned around and prepared a syringe. "You can sit up and get dressed again, I only need to take the blood sample." I sat up and the doctor took the blood sample without difficulties. "Normally I would examine your psych as well, but seeing how you are able to cope with what you experienced on Eden Prime, I'd say you have already proven that you aren't going to break down in mid-combat. I doubt the examination is still necessary."

I grinned while getting dressed again. "Yeah, I was a bit surprised myself. But I have always been a bit of a pragmatic in that department, so I didn't expect much of a shock anyway."

"You are good soldier material, then," Chakwas laughed.

"I wouldn't believe that just yet, doctor. I've always had trouble following orders," I joined in.

"There are more of those in the navy than one would expect, trust me." she insisted on her point, still smiling.

Chuckling, I gave in. "If you say so."

"Anyway,I don't think the blood analysis is going to bring up anything new, so I'll go ahead and give Captain Anderson my okay. If my guess is right he'll want to talk to you again before you leave the ship, so stay on board for a bit."

Together we left the med bay and while I waited in front of it, Dr. Chakwas entered the captain's chambers. She came out shortly after again, telling me I could go in now, and went back to the med bay where she probably was going to start preparing the paperwork necessary for my introduction into the Alliance Navy.

I hesitated for a second – was this really what I had to do? - but pulled myself together and went into Captain Anderson's cabin, where he sat at his workspace, waiting for me.

"Take a seat, Mr. Scades, I have news for you."

A bit nervous, I sat down on one of the stools on the middle table.

"I just got off the call with Fleet Admiral Hackett. I didn't tell him the whole story, since I couldn't be sure the call wouldn't be intercepted, no matter how secure the line was supposed to be. He agreed to help you out on the condition that you reported to him as soon as you could."

I exhaled with relief. "I'll gladly do that, Captain. But it won't be possible in the near future. I can't leave the Normandy right now."

Anderson nodded as if he had expected that answer. "I told him as much. Admiral Hackett wasn't pleased, but he grasped the importance of the situation quickly. He's got a sharp mind. "

I had expected as much. From what I knew of Admiral Hackett, he was one of the best guys in the whole navy. There weren't a lot of people outside the Normandy's crew that I trusted, but he was definitely one of them.

"Your profile will be ready in a few hours. You'll have special clearance, meaning you are allowed to stay on the Normandy. By the time we depart from the Citadel, we will have you equipped with standard issue Equipment. Higher Grade weaponry will not be permitted yet, though. You'll need combat experience to earn that. You can take up quarters in one of the officer's cabins. Plenty of them are free."

I grinned, having a hard time believing my ears. "That's great! I am in your debt Captain. I couldn't have hoped for something better."

Captain Anderson nodded but his face darkened. "You do know what kind of risk both Admiral Hackett and I run with this, don't you? Even if you're technically not going to be N7 your clearance suggests something similar. If you fail to live up to the requirements of the N7 badge we will be the ones to bear the blame." He breathed a deep sigh. "I'm not implying that I don't trust you. If I didn't, I wouldn't even have been willing to talk to you to begin with. But you still need to be aware of what is at risk."

I got serious as well. "Captain, with all due respect. I believe I know the best of everybody involved, what is at risk. If I fail, I doubt it will only be your reputation that is at stake. It is very possible, that simply by trying to help and failing at it, I will ruin every chance of survival this galaxy would ever have had, had I never appeared at all. Rest assured that I will work without halt to save this galaxy. And besides, if I want to be able to keep up with Shepard on the battlefield, I will have to be able to stand up to the N7 reputation." Finishing my little speech, I tried to get rid of my tension.

The captain studied me, but I was surprised to see a smile break out on his face.

"Good to see that you have the willpower needed to succeed in what you plan."

"So this was a test?" I asked, miffed.

"In a way, yes," he said. "Had you failed I would have dropped you of on the Citadel and left you on your own."

That brought a shaky smile to my face. Good thing I had passed.

Anderson turned around, picked up a small, card like thing and held it out to me. I took it and turned it in my hands. " Is that a credit chit?"

"Yes. It contains your first payment. Normally, as a special operative, you would receive payment after each mission you attend, but in this case Admiral Hackett and I agreed to give it to you immediately, since you wouldn't have any opportunity to buy necessities otherwise."

"I have neither identification nor any kind of money, after all," I agreed.

"Correct."

I inspected it a second longer, then put it into my pocket and made up my mind. "Do you need me for anything else right now? I'd like to have a look around the Citadel, try to get used to... all this."

Anderson shook his head. "No. But don't take too long it is already into the afternoon and Dr. Chakwas will want to tune your Omni-tool to your bio-signature as soon as all the paperwork is done. Also she told me she was going to start on your gene-therapy this evening."

"We talked about that, yes. Apparently she's going to use me as a guinea pig for a new variant of the retrovirus the Alliance uses. "

"The regular one would take too long," he agreed and stood up from his seat.

"I'll see you when everything is finished, Mr. Scades."

I stood up myself and shook his hand. " Thanks for all you are doing for me."

Captain Anderson nodded once again and dismissed me for the time being. I left the room and headed up to the CIC from where I would enter the Citadel.

I was just starting to climb the stairs, when I realized that I had no way of understanding the aliens on the citadel. If I remembered correctly, the codex had said something about a VI-translator of some kind. Chakwas should have some of those, shouldn't she? I turned around and went back to the med-bay. When I asked her she looked at me quizzically.

"You lost your translator? How did that happen?"

Searching for a suitable explanation I looked around the med-bay, trying to buy time. "I don't know. I … had it when I arrived on Eden Prime. I must have lost it during the attack."

Chakwas thought about that for a second, then started rummaging around in a cupboard next to her desk. "That's... unfortunate. I don't have any advanced models in stock – the alliance generally integrates the translator into the Omni-tool. But I think I should have an older model lying around somewhere."

Having found what she was looking for she turned back to me, a little knob-like thing in her hand.

"There. It is an in-ear model. You might experience glitches and it won't be able to adopt accents, but it will translate the standard languages into english. Before putting it on, press the little button on the side."

I took it, pressed the button and put the translator into my right ear. It fit surprisingly well.

I didn't notice any difference, but maybe I would when I encountered the first alien. I smiled. "So, does this work like a babel fish?"

Chakwas laughed. "You mean the one from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?"

My smile widened into a grin. For some reason I had not expected her to understand that analogy. On the other hand, why should people stop reading great literature just because it was a few centuries old. That didn't stop us back home either.

"Yes, that's the one"

She shook her head. "No, at least this one doesn't. Newer models should come close, but even they are unable to translate something not in their data banks."

"Too bad. I would have loved to have a discussion about god's existence on the basis of language translators.", I shrugged jokingly and turned around. "See you, Dr. Chakwas."

"Yes, and wait longer than five minutes until you return this time, I need to work on your paperwork," she quipped and once again went back to her work.

Laughing I left the med-bay. Too bad the translators weren't as efficient as the babel fish. Oh well, I would just have to learn to hear the voice of all things. Or learn every existing language. Yeah... No, I think I'd rather try the first.


	3. A quarian Surprise

  
**A quarian Surprise**

After I made my way down the elevator to C-Sec, I continued on to the wards section.

Before talking with Captain Anderson I had planned to go to Chora's Den, hide out in the alley where Fist's assassin was going to attempt to kill Tali, help her out and then use this as a way to make Shepard take note of me again.

But since I was only a few hours away from basically being part of the Normandy's Crew, that wasn't necessary anymore. Meaning I was left wondering what to do and where to go.

I had a few credits now, I didn't know how much, but since it was supposed to be the payment for the next mission, I was going to go on, it had to be a decent amount of money. I doubted the military had stopped paying soldiers respectable amounts in the 200 years I had effectively missed out on.

This meant that I wouldn't have to sell any of my belongings, a fact that relieved me greatly. I hadn't expected to get much out of them, but the personal value they held, now that I had no way of going back home, was immense. Having been able to leave them on the Normandy was a huge relief.

Walking down the wards, which were a lot fuller than in the game, as you'd expect from the hubs of a megalopolis, I decided to buy me some new clothes – the ones I had on wouldn't be sufficient forever . Suddenly I noticed some kind of commotion in front of me. Pushing the questions in my mind away for the moment, I tried to make out what it was about.

I was close to the alley in which Tali's meeting would occur, in the part of the wards with the small clinic. One of the doors, leading to other sections of the wards, slid open and the people were jostling each other, trying to get away from … whatever was on the other side. Was it a Krogan coming through?

I tried to get closer to it, and since everybody else was trying to get away, I didn't have trouble doing so. What I saw as soon as I went through the door … was appalling and infuriating at the same time.

It wasn't a Krogan but a wounded Quarian. A badly wounded Quarian.

She was bleeding strongly from where she held her side, leaning on the wall, panting. Yet everybody only cared about getting away from her. At best they sneered at her.

I had seen a very similar scene in one of the comics additional to the mass effect games. But nothing could have prepared me for the macabre ignorance with which reality treated the wounded and bleeding Quarian. I had hoped that the comics were exaggerating, but reality proved to be much worse than fiction.

Shock ran through my body when I realized that this had to be Tali. There couldn't be that many Quarians on the Citadel at any time; certainly not enough wounded Quarian women desperately trying to get to a clinic on the upper wards.

Tali staggered forwards and was now directly in front of me. She was desperately pressing one hand on the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Judging from the way she held herself and the amount of blood pouring out between her fingers, I realized she was bleeding worse than in the comic. I stared at her unable to even move out of the way. I had never seen somebody this wounded in my life. She looked so weak and fragile just then, but at the same time radiated a fierce determination.

"Could … you please … move to the … side?", Tali panted, her voice shaky from blood loss and pain.

Brought back to my senses I did the exact opposite and took the last step necessary to close the distance between us. "No, but I can help you. You can barely walk on your own," I answered her strained plea. I carefully put my arm around her, sliding her free arm over my shoulder, so that her weight rested against me. Tali jerked, wanting to protest, but her breathing was still shaky and her body was trembling all over. "You need help. And I'm not rotten enough to ignore that, " I said gently. " Just concentrate on staying conscious."

Too weak to genuinely resist, she gave in and started moving a bit faster, now that I was supporting her weight. Ignoring the unbelieving glances and whispers, the masses around us were giving us, we made our way through the door I had just passed and across the ward. Luckily we didn't have to fight our way through, since everybody was avoiding us like the plague.

I still couldn't believe their reaction. A wounded woman was staggering around the ward. Everybody should have been trying to help her. Her species shouldn't matter.

I suppose moral courage hasn't become any more popular since the twenty first century. I grimaced darkly, but quickly calmed my anger. Quarians had a reputation as bad as the gypsy back in the Middle Ages. There was nothing I could do about that.

My concentration fully returned to Tali, when she tripped and nearly collapsed. "Hang in there, the clinic is just ahead."

"I … know. My eyes... aren't hurt," she retorted sarcastically.

A slight smile crept onto my face. If she still had enough strength to be sarcastic, she couldn't be that close to death. She was, however, very close to losing consciousness. I had to keep her conscious somehow.

Maybe you should talk to her? ... Well, it wasn't a bad idea, was it?

"Drek, you are in bad shape. Did you wrestle a Krogan for Pyjak meat, or something?" I know, it wasn't the brightest joke, but it didn't have to be.

Tali started to laugh, but stopped abruptly, jumping in pain. I guess making a joke hadn't been the best idea after all. "No … nothing like that. We came here … because I found … information." She coughed heavily from the stress of trying to talk, but it was keeping her conscious and she was telling me what had happened, making this doubly useful. This way I wouldn't have to feign ignorance about what was going on later. "We … were attacked … by mercenaries," she continued slowly, all the while getting closer to the clinic. We were now only a few steps away.

Mercenaries? As in more than one mercenary? On the citadel as well? That explained why she was in worse shape than in the comic.

"So you were trying to sell that information and mercenaries, probably hired by someone trying to prevent you from selling it, hunted you down."

She didn't answer. Maybe she was too weak, or maybe she just didn't want to be reminded of what had happened to her friends. I didn't know.

It also wasn't relevant anymore since we reached the doors to the clinic a second after I finished.

For a moment I wondered where the button to open the door was, but it slid open automatically, revealing a small clinic much like what I was used to from the game, though it was a bit larger and had more beds. In one corner, the clinic's doctor talked to a Volus, presumably Barla Von. I remembered her name now: Dr. Michel.

"Doctor, I've got a wounded Quarian. She's in bad shape!" I called out to her.

Their glances fell on us and Dr. Michel hurried towards us. After a quick look at Tali, she gestured to one of the beds. "Put her on that one, I'll take care of it immediately."

I followed her instruction, gently lifting Tali up and lying her down. I didn't listen to her protests. They were barely audible anyway. The doctor followed me, starting to fiddle around with an interface next to the bed. "You did good, bringing her here. Now get back, please, I need to work. There is nothing else you can do for her," she said, already starting to apply medi-gel to Tali's wound. Looking up at me, she repeated her order. "Now. Operating on a Quarian is a delicate matter."

I hesitated a second longer, then stepped back as I was told and left Dr. Michel to her work. Behind me I heard the characteristic sound of a Volus breathing in. "How did it happen?"

I turned around and faced Barla Von. " She said she was attacked by mercenaries."

The Volus nodded. "Nobody cares about what happens to a Quarian on the Citadel. You showed a great amount of courage, bringing her here."

"Sadly, I did," I agreed with him. Yet what worried me a lot more than the miserable attitude of the Citadel inhabitants towards Quarians were the implications of my meeting Tali on her way to the clinic.

Considering how long I had stayed on the Normandy, Shepard was bound to be looking for evidence that linked Saren to the Geth by now. If Tali didn't hurry, there was a good chance she'd miss the commander altogether.

Of course in that case, I would just have to lend destiny a helping hand, but still … a derivation from the game this early in the plot, it made me worry. What else was going to be different? Was my knowledge going to be of any use at all?

"Why were the Mercenaries after her?" Barla asked, interrupting my thoughts.

"Hm? What? She said she had some sort of information."

That got his attention.

"Information?" he wheezed interestedly. "What kind of information?"

I was about to answer him, but stopped myself at the last second. I had to pretend I didn't know that, Tali had never told me, after all. "I don't know. She didn't say. But seeing how she ended up it must be important to someone."

Barla Von wheezed thoughtfully. "I will have to ask her, when she is responsive."

"I guess ..." I started to agree, but broke off mid-sentence. Wait. Barla Von was here. Right now. And Tali was late. Commander Shepard was probably already hunting for proof on Saren's betrayal. And she couldn't have started too long ago. Also, I somehow doubted she would go to Harkin first. Did that mean she had already talked with Barla Von? "You are Barla Von, aren't you?"

He looked up in surprise. "Yes, I am, how did you know?"

"I have my sources. Did you speak with Commander Shepard today?" I asked him.

"I don't know why that should interest you, but I didn't," Barla Von wheezed quizzically.

I grimaced. That meant she went to Harkin. He should have directed her to Garrus, but since Garrus doesn't know about the danger Dr. Michel was going to be in, he wasn't going to end up here. "Maybe they are going directly to Fist." I muttered to myself, "I just hope they are going to pick up Wrex on the way..."

"What are you mumbling about?" Dr. Michel's question brought me back to reality. She had left Tali's bed and joined Barla Von and me.

"Nothing. I was just thinking out loud. Bad habit of mine. More importantly, is she alright?" I asked, changing the subject.

The doctor looked at me for a moment, then shrugged. "It was only a graze shot, though a deep one. The problem was that she didn't have Medi-gel to stop the bleeding. She also shows signs of shock."

"But she'll be fine?""

"She's currently sleeping, but will wake shortly. She is going to be exhausted, but she will be fine."

I started to relax. That was at least one burden off my mind.

"Good."

Dr. Michel seemed sympathetic to my concern, "Do you know her?"

I hesitated, then shook my head. "No, but I couldn't just leave her alone to bleed. No one else was willing to do much."

"Quarians aren't welcomed on the Citadel," Dr. Michel agreed sadly. "She was lucky you came along. I am Dr. Michel. Nice to meet you."

She held out her hand in a greeting. I shook it and smiled back. "Thanks. The name's Scades. Philipp Scades. Nice to meet you too."

I turned to Barla Von. "Greetings to you as well. I'm sorry I was a little impolite earlier."

He shook his head. "It is alright. You wouldn't tell me how you knew who I was, would you?"

"No, that's going to stay my secret," I grinned.

An audible groan from the bed on which Tali was lying caught our attention. I went over to her side as she slowly got up. "Are you alright?" I asked worriedly.

Tali's body winced. "I feel as if I wrestled with a Krogan", she said, in a dry voice.

"You should have just given him that Pyjak meat, after all," I smirked. Tali laughed weakly. Apparently she remembered my joke from earlier.

"Your drowsiness is most likely because of the painkillers I gave you," Dr. Michel informed Tali helpfully. "They should wear off in a few hours."

"I hope so. I'd rather be in pain than unable to defend myself," she answered.

I could relate to that. Right then I wanted to come to the point though. The sooner she told us what had happened, the sooner I could stop pretending not to know.

"More importantly, how did this happen to you? You said you had information. What kind of information? What would be important enough to openly hunt someone down on the Citadel? Even if it was a Quarian – no offense, by the way."

Tali shook her head. "None taken" She started to recount what had happened.

"Finally someone is willing to listen to me… it all started just a few days ago. I had left the fleet for the first time in my life, taking the first steps of my pilgrimage. On our way to Ilium we came across a peculiar transmission from an ice planet in one of the systems of the Crescent Nebulae. We scanned the planet … and found traces of the Geth."

"Geth? But they haven't been outside of the Perseus Veil in centuries!" Dr. Michel called out astonished.

"Oh, they have. Just today they attacked Eden Prime," I informed her.

"Yes! That's the attack, that spectre's message was about! ," Tali excitedly exclaimed.

"A Message from a Spectre?" Barla Von asked. "How did you obtain it?"

Pausing, Tali gathered her thoughts.

"The Geth were our creations. The Citadel council blamed us for unleashing them. For that we are treated like outcasts. Pariahs," she groaned. "If the Geth spread to other worlds, we will be blamed for that too. We had to do something. I short-circuited one of the Geth units on the planet and was able to salvage a transmission from its data banks. Shortly afterwards, we were attacked so we couldn't investigate further, but we managed to get away.. We continued to Ilium, were they found us again. Keenah'Breizh and I managed to stow away on a freighter to the citadel, but we were followed. By the time C-Sec let us go, they had spotted us …" her voice got shaky for a second, " Keenah didn't make it. I'm the only one left." She grew silent, pained by her memory, then got a grip on herself. And that's how I got here. Though, honestly, I don't remember how I made it to the upper wards."

"That doesn't matter now. No one can get to you here. You are safe,"Dr. Michel reassured Tali.

Barla Von didn't feel quite as certain about that. "Yes. For now. But that recording you are carrying – if a Spectre is trying to have you assassinated, it must be very serious, very dangerous information." He wheezed firmly. " And very valuable. There are people who'd pay a lot for what you've got there. Either to use it or to destroy it. If I could guarantee your safety, would you trust me to trade this information for you?"

Tali put one hand on her helmet in a gesture of unease. "I don't want anyone else to die for it."

"That's not what he's saying," Dr. Michel said. "We can get that recording into the hands of someone who'll know what to do."

"Yes, I bet you can," I broke in, " But your first choice as a protector would have been Fist, wouldn't it, Barla Von?"

He turned his head to me. " Yes it would have been, but he has been … compromised, I will look for other means of protection."

"That means my information was right." I looked at Tali, " Listen, I know someone who, by now, should be trying to hunt down that Spectre your recording is incriminating. Commander Shepard. She's with the Alliance Navy. At her side, you will be safe and she is going to be able to put your recording to good use." I turned back to the Volus and looked at him questioningly. " What do you say? It might not be as profitable, but it is her safest option."

He nodded hesitatingly. "If one can trust her."

"Definitely."

Tali stood up from the bed. " I'll talk to her. Just tell me where to go."

I smiled. Things were going well. Now all Shepard had to do was get Wrex and Garrus onto the team.

"Your best bet would be to meet her at the Normandy, that's the ship she is stationed on. I'll take you there, I'm part of the crew."

"You are with the military?" she asked surprised.

"Only since today,"I smirked.

Tali tilted her head questioningly.

"Long story. I'll tell you later."

We said goodbye to Dr. Michel and Barla Von and were just about to leave the clinic, when the doors opened and revealed three armed thugs. All of us stood still for a moment. Then the thug in the middle pulled out his pistol and the other two followed his lead.

"Hands in the air!" he yelled. "Get back, both of you, or I shoot your fucking heads off!"

What can I say? We did as we were told. He made a very good argument.

"You, Quarian! Give us the recording!" the middle thug demanded. Apparently he was the leader of their merry band.

My thoughts were racing. Those guys had to be Fist's thugs. This implied that, if Shepard attacked Fist, he would probably try to buy his life by telling her about the thugs he sent here. And if he did, Shepard would most likely try to get here in time to save us. But why would she attack Fist? She didn't know he had betrayed the Shadowbroker to work for Saren now. Barla Von hadn't told her yet.

Tali hesitatingly started to fiddle around with her Omni-tool. I stopped her. We had to play for time, until we found a way to solve this situation. Or until the solution found us. She probably hadn't planned to just give them the recording, but I had an idea. "Don't. They'll shoot you."

The Leader turned to me, his face contorted in a scowl. "What are you? Some wise guy?"

He came close to me and waved his gun in my face. "Shut up or I shoot you."

Right. You aren't the brightest bulb in the box, are you?

I threw a quick measuring glance at his companions. Both of them seemed unsteady and nervous, looking at each other constantly. If I could rattle them a bit more, I might be able to get control of the situation. That would give Tali the opportunity to work her tech magic. I would have to get rid of the leader first, though. He was too trigger happy. If I tried anything, no matter what, he'd shoot without hesitation.

But he was still waving his gun in my face. Directly in my face.

My heart pounded against my chest so fast, I could hear my blood flow through my ears. This was it. I had to go all in.

I smiled arrogantly, trying to distract the three thugs. "Do you know what mistake most people make when using firearms?"

Confusion showed on the leader's face. "What the fuck are you babbling about?"

He never heard my answer to his question.

In one swift movement I grabbed his weapon hand, twisted it and pulled him towards me. With my free arm I used a lever hold at his elbow and pushed. He screamed, as the arm broke, and dropped the gun. I could have taken it from him at that moment, but I had something else in mind.

Ignoring the pistol, I punched him in his windpipe with a right hook, as hard as I could. He jerked and toppled over backwards. He tried to get back up, but collapsed and fell silent.

Eat that, sucker.

Breathing heavily, I kicked away his gun and drew my own. Facing the other two thugs -Lefty and Righty - I found that they were aiming at me, shakily and with fear in their eyes.

It probably would have been the smart thing to stop then, but the bluff I had in mind could actually work. And with all the adrenalin pumping through my veins, I didn't feel like making the smart choice. Besides, I still had to keep their attention on me.

"Oh no, no. This won't work, chummers. This won't work at all." I called out to them, waving my gun around trying to appear confident. At the same time I casually took a step away from Tali, gradually removing her from their lines of sight.

They looked at each other, unable to comprehend what I was saying. "I'm talking about the way you are doing this. Your grip on your pistols is totally screwed. If you fire like that, you're gonna bust your elbows."

They readjusted their grip and balance and tried to suppress their shaking.

I nodded, satisfied. "That's better. Now think about how you want to do this. Your friend -", I looked down on the unconscious man at my feet and kicked him in the temple, just to be sure, " - was obviously doing it wrong."

Meanwhile Tali had caught onto my plan and hid her left arm – the one with the Omni-tool – behind her body. I imagined she was working up an electrical storm that would knock both of them out. Granted, that was highly unlikely, but maybe she was readying an overload or a sabotage. Those could still have a similar effect. They would at least take out their weapons and in a dogfight, I was confident in my abilities.

"G- give us the recording!" Righty stammered.

I smiled at him forgivingly. "Give us the recording, please."

Not waiting for a reaction, I closed the distance between us in an attempt to undermine the last remnants of their confidence, at the same time focusing their concentration on me.

"You see, we would like to give it to you, but just a moment before you came in, we hid it." Dr. Michel looked at me astonishedly, but I ignored her. There was no way back, I had to go through with this.

"We hid it in a safe place. And if we don't pick it up within twenty minutes it is going to be released to the extranet." I paused dramatically. "From there it will be directly sent to several information dealers."

"You're lying! Stop lying and give us the recording!" Lefty yelled.

I ignored him At the moment, I had control over the situation. I couldn't afford to lose it. Still, slowly but steadily things got riskier.

Come on, Tali, hurry it up!, I silently urged Tali on.

"I fear I am not. You will have to have us lead you to the hiding place. Oh and I would advise you to hurry,"I smirked.

"Why's that?" Righty asked carefully. I assumed he wasn't one of the brightest ones either.

I shrugged. " As I said, if we don't pick up the recording within twenty minutes, it's going to enter the extranet, and from there be sent to information dealers. Your boss wouldn't like that, now, would he?"

They looked at each other again, not knowing what to make of my story. But for now they weren't shooting me and that was all that mattered. After all, I was only stalling for time, until Tali got ready whatever she was readying or Shepard got here. If she got here.

You have to get here, Shepard, and fast. I won't be able to keep control of the situation much longer...

"You're lying! You have to be! Stop lying and give us the recording!" Lefty yelled again, more forceful this time.

I raised my brows contemptuously. "You are repeating yourself, chummer. I heard you the first time."

He scowled and was about to say something else, but Tali beat him to the punch. "You want me to give you the recording? How about this, Bosh'tet!" she yelled and made a waving motion with her left arm. From the tip of her fingers – or rather from the tip of her Omni-tool – a bolt broke free, powerfully hitting them and their weapons. Screaming, Righty and Lefty let their weapons drop and collapsed in pain. As soon as they stopped jerking, I ran to them and checked if they were still conscious. Lefty was, so I hit him a few times. He didn't move again.

"Wiz, Tali! I was starting to think I'd have to keep them busy until they died of old age." I grinned broadly and got up off my knees.

"I had to charge the overload first," she apologized, seemingly taking my joke serious.

"That was a joke. I knew that,"I said, "Or I figured it."

"Oh. Sorry."

I shrugged. "Anyway, honestly, nice work."

At that moment the door behind them silently slid open and Shepard marched through, in full battle armor and with weapon drawn. Ashley, Kaidan, Garrus and Wrex followed suit.

"Hey Shepard!", I called out to her "You're late! The party's already terminated." I had to snicker at my own pun. Terminated. I had just reached a new level of shallowness.

Recognizing me, Shepard's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

I grinned stupidly. "Protecting wounded Quarians, playing with the brains of weak-minded thugs and generally enjoying myself."

Ashley looked at me skeptically. "You what?"

Maybe it was the high from having survived my reckless bluff or maybe it was the faces all of them were making as they noticed the three unconscious and badly beaten thugs. Whatever it was, it was too much. I burst out laughing.

"I think he wants to say he helped me get to the clinic and take care of those thugs you see lying around." Tali put in, trying to be helpful.

"Just what exactly happened here?" Garrus asked in amazement.

I tried to calm myself down and explain the situation but Tali had to help out a lot, since I couldn't get rid of my laughing fit. When it finally passed I asked how she had known we were in trouble.

"Fist told me.", Wrex said, "He tried to beg for his life, when I cornered him in his office. Didn't work though."

Shepard grimaced. "We tried to stop him from killing Fist. There are rumors of him working for Saren. But we were too late."

"Don't say that like it's a bad thing," grunted Wrex. "He didn't deserve any better. And besides, I was payed to kill him. I don't leave contracts unfulfilled."

Shepard sighed audibly. "I told you already, Wrex. We could have used his knowledge."

"And that's why I told you about the Quarian." He nodded his head grimly into Tali's direction. "She's right there. Talk to her."

Apparently Shepard knew there was no way to reason with Wrex on this matter. "Garrus, Check up with C-Sec. Tell them what happened here. And make sure there aren't any other thugs moving around."

"Yes, Commander," Garrus answered. He took a few steps away from us, where he started talking into a communicator on his arm.

Shepard turned to Tali, noticing her bandage. "Are you alright? That wound looks bad."

"Thanks. I know how to look after myself. The wound isn't too bad. Thanks to your friend I got here in time."

Her friend? I have a name Tali... Then I realized I hadn't introduced myself yet. "Oh. Right," I said out loud.

Kaidan looked at me. "What, oh right?"

I shook my head, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. "Not important."

He shrugged and turned his attention back to Shepard.

"My name's Shepard. I'm looking for evidence to prove Saren's a traitor. Wrex told us you had information about him. Is that true?"

"It is. I'll give it to you, but not here. We need to go somewhere safe," Tali answered, visibly relieved to finally meet someone who listened to her and was able to make use of her recording.

"For now we should be safe here, but we could take her to the human embassy. Your ambassador will want to see this anyway. We'll just have to wait until C-Sec gets here to pick up those goons."

"Good idea. We'll go there as soon as C-Sec arrives."

Having decided that, they tied up Leader, Lefty and Righty. Just as they finished, two C-Sec officers arrived and took our three friends into custody. A few minutes later we were all heading to the human embassy where we would get to meet Humanity's wonderful ambassador, Donnell Udina. I was getting sick already, but seeing as he was the only one who could get Shepard a second hearing with the council, I supposed there was no other way.

When we arrived in front of the embassies, I got my first real look at the presidium – I had to say, it was magnificent.

If one was a friend of sterile order. And fishless lakes.

But other than that, it really was something to look at. It was hard to believe that all of that was nothing more than a sophisticated trap put up by the Reapers.

Anyway, we entered the embassy where we were instantly greeted by Udina's scrunchy, constantly scowling 'You-are-all-such-a-bother-to-me' face. "You're not making my life easy, Shepard. Firefights in the wards? An all out assault on Chora's Den? Do you know how many-" He stopped his rant and threw an odd look at Tali. "Who's this. A Quarian? What are you up to, Shepard?"

"Making your day, Ambassador. She has information linking Saren to the Geth."

Ha! Take that, Donna. I smirked inwardly.

Udina looked at Tali sceptically. "Really? Maybe you better start at the beginning, Miss...?" He slightly nodded his head, asking for her name.

"My name is Tali. Tali'Zorah nar Raya."

"We don't see many Quarians here. Why did you leave the flotilla?"

"I was on my pilgrimage, my rite of passage into adulthood," Tali explained, shifting her weight and facing all of us. "During my travels I began hearing reports of Geth activity. I was curious." she shrugged slightly.

"I tracked a suspicious transmission to an uncharted planet. On it we found a patrol of Geth. I waited for one to become separated from its unit. Then I disabled it and removed its memory core."

Anderson frowned. "I thought the Geth fried their memory cores when they died. Some kind of defense mechanism."

"Yes, that's what I thought, as well.", Shepard agreed. "How did you manage to preserve the memory core?"

"My people created the Geth," Tali reasoned, "If you're quick, careful, and lucky small caches of data can sometimes be saved. Most of the core was wiped clean. But I salvaged something from its audio banks." She activated her Omni-tool and punched in some commands.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to the Conduit." issued Saren's voice from her Omni-tool.

"That's Saren's voice. This proves he was involved in the attack!" Anderson exclaimed triumphantly.

"He said Eden Prime brought him one step closer to finding the Conduit. Any idea what that means?" Shepard wondered.

"The Conduit must have something to do with the beacon. Maybe it's some kind of Prothean technology... like a weapon," Captain Anderson pondered.

"Wait... there's more," Tali chipped in. "Saren wasn't working alone."

She played the recording again.

"Eden Prime was a major victory! The beacon has brought us one step closer to the Conduit."

"And one step closer to the return of the Reapers." This time Benezia's voice was audible as well.

Udina scratched his chin pensively. "I don't recognize that other voice. The one talking about Reapers."

"I feel like I've heard that name before...", Shepard mused.

"According to the Geth the Reapers were a hyper advanced machine race that existed 50,000 years ago," Tali explained, "The Reapers hunted the Protheans to total extinction, and then they vanished. At least, that's what the Geth believe."

Udina crossed his arms doubtfully. "Sounds a little far fetched."

"The vision on Eden Prime... I understand it now. I saw the Protheans being wiped out by the Reapers," Shepard realized.

Yep, that's exactly what happened. But nobody's gonna believe you yet. That is going to take an all out invasion. I grimaced.

"The Geth revere the Reapers as gods, the pinnacle of non-organic life. And they believe Saren knows how to bring them back," Tali elaborated.

"The council is just going to love this," Udina sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"The Reapers are a threat to every species in Citadel space. We have to tell them," Shepard said forcefully.

"No matter what they think about the rest of this, those audio files prove Saren's a traitor," Anderson asserted.

The ambassador agreed with him. "The captain's right. We need to present this to the council right away. I'll go and prepare a meeting. Meet me in the Citadel Tower." Not waiting for an answer he hurried out of the embassy.

"What about her? The Quarian?" Wrex nodded in Tali's direction, as Udina left.

"My name, is Tali!" Tali chided energetically. To Shepard she said, "Your friend saw me fighting. He knows what I can do. I can handle myself in a fight. Let me come with you."

Again I was reminded that I hadn't introduced me yet. I'd have to remedy that as soon as possible. "She's good, Shepard. Damn good. Especially with tech," I supported her. Seriously. In this whole galaxy there were probably only a handful of people able to keep up with her when it came to electronics and engineering. And that shotgun of hers was wickedly evil.

Shepard looked at me, then back at Tali. " I thought you were on your pilgrimage. Wouldn't this interfere with that?"

Tali vehemently shook her head. "The pilgrimage proves we are willing to give of ourselves for the greater good. What does it say about me if I turn my back on this? Saren is a danger to the entire galaxy. My pilgrimage can wait."

"Well, I'll take all the help I can get." Shepard smiled, satisfied with her answer.

"Thanks. You won't regret this," Tali said, a broad smile detectable in her voice.

Oh, how right you are, Tali. I grinned inwardly. Of course, Shepard probably wasn't going to delve into a romance with Tali, seeing as they were both female and at least Tali had never shown any homosexual tendencies. Or bisexual ones. Although that would definitely be hot. A man could dream, couldn't he?

"There is something else you should know, while we're at it," Anderson cautiously broke in.

Shepard looked at him quizzically. "Yes, Sir?"

"I have recruited Mr. Scades as a special operative on the crew of the Normandy. Dr. Chakwas is going to put him through an experimental gene-therapy not yet used by the Alliance military.", He looked at Ashley, "As the Normandy's gunnery chief you are going to instruct him in the usage of firearms. Lieutenant Alenko, you will be in charge of hand-to-hand drill."

Shepard, Ashley and Kaidan were at a loss for words. For all of 30 seconds.

"What?" Shepard asked.

"Why?" Kaidan wanted to know.

"Special operative?!" Ashley exclaimed.

"This is not up for debate," The captain added.

I didn't know what to say myself. I had expected a training routine, but not this.

Then again, if you thought about it, it seemed logical. He was giving me giving basically me pseudo-N7 status. N7 was the highest grade of qualification one could achieve in the Alliance military. I should have known I wouldn't get off with a bit of gene therapy, a fitness program and a few hours of getting used to my new weapons.

Shepard was the first to recover herself. "Are you sure about this, sir? He's only a civilian."

"Be assured, Commander, I have not made this decision rashly. Mr. Scades and I had a very extensive conversation. Yes, I am sure about this."

Looking at the three of them I felt guilty. I was smashing every piece of regulation there was to tiny, unrecognisable bits and they had to face the music.

"Listen, guys. I know what I'm doing. I'm not just doing this for fun. I want to help. And I will not disappoint you."

"This isn't about you disappointing us," Ashley groaned.

"Wait... then what's your problem?" I frowned. What did she mean, it's not about me disappointing them? If this wasn't about me being unable to keep up with them, then what?

"Our problem is that you are a civilian," Kaidan explained tensely.

What?

"What?"

Shepard sighed. "We know you have what it takes to become a soldier. You showed that on Eden Prime. But you are a civilian. You shouldn't have to risk your life on the front lines. That's our job. You should be at home, living a normal life."

So that's what this is about. I realized Shepards point.

My face darkened. Not because of their concern for my well-being but because I could never live a normal life in this reality. Not without my family. Not without my friends. Not knowing what was going to happen. But I couldn't blame them for that, they didn't know about any of it.

I looked down awkwardly. "My chances for a normal life went down to zero when I arrived on Eden Prime."

Nobody said anything. Tali, Garrus and Wrex probably felt very out of place right now.

...

"Then there's nothing we can do about it, is there?" Tali eventually broke the silence, trying to sound unburdened. Wrex grunted something unidentifiable. It didn't sound nice. Garrus didn't react at all.

The other three looked at each other and finally accepted their orders. Not that they could have done anything about it. But I'd rather have them train me willingly. That way, there would be less danger to my life.

"We are going to work you to death," Ashley started grinning. Shepard and Kaidan joined in.

Or maybe not. I was getting a bad feeling about this. They didn't mean that literally, did they? "I'm looking forward to it", I laughed nervously. The others were amused by my apparent discomfort.

After a minute Shepard got back to more important matters. "We should get going. The sooner we hand the council our proof the sooner we can hunt down Saren." She looked at Tali. "You are hurt, Tali. Get some rest. You can give the recording to me."

"Yes, I'll take you. I wanted to show you the way to the Normandy, anyway. Also, Dr. Chakwas is going to want to start with my gene-treatment," I agreed with her.

Anderson nodded. "She contacted me earlier, all the paperwork is done, she's got the Omni-tool and the batch of the retrovirus. She'll be able to begin as soon as you're back."

Taking note of that, I looked at Tali inquiringly. She had to be exhausted, but it was her decision. If she wanted to be there when her recording was presented to the council, then none of us would deny her that right.

"Alright. I'll transfer the audio file to your Omni-tool, Commander." She decided to come with me and activated her Omni-tool again. Her relief at being able to rest in a safe place had to be vast. It was certainly recognisable in her body language and voice.

"Good. You can take one of the empty officer's quarters. Garrus can take the second bunk in the one Philipp has chosen – I assume you told him too, captain?" Shepard said, looking at Captain Anderson questioningly.

He affirmed her assumption. "I believe it would be best for the Krogan to take his own quarter as well. I assume you want to stay with us?" he asked Wrex.

"It's Urdnot Wrex. Saren complicated my last contract immensely. I'll be damned if I let him go."

Tali finished copying the recording of Saren's and Benezia's voices on Shepard's Omni-tool and we parted in front of the embassies. Tali and I made our way to the Normandy while Shepard and the rest of the team followed Anderson to the Citadel Tower. There Shepard was going to be inaugurated into the ranks of the Citadel Spectres. I would have liked to have borne witness to that moment, but making sure Tali got back to the Normandy safely and starting my training to be able to keep up with the others would have to take priority.


	4. Downtime - Take one

 

**Downtime, Take One**

Tali and I took the elevator down to C-Sec HQ, which was actually going at a reasonable pace, as opposed to the crawl of the in-game ones. Those had only been as slow as they were to hide loading screens, after all. I turned to Tali. It was about time I introduced myself. By now, she knew my name, of course. And I had known hers from the beginning. But nonetheless, I felt this was necessary.

"The name's Philipp, by the way. Philipp Scades." I held out my hand to her. "It's not like we just met, but nice to meet you."

"I'm happy we met, as well." Tali chuckled, "I have to thank you for rescuing me. Is that a human ritual?" She pointed at my hand.

" Something like that, yes. It's a standard greeting," I shrugged. Tali took my hand and shook it and fascination swept through me. I just shook the hand of a non-human for the first time!

"Is it also normal to hold each other's hands this long?"

I realized I had not let go of her hand yet and laughed, embarrassed.

"Oh. No, I was just... fascinated by the feel of your hand. It's the first time I shook the hand of another species." The elevator door opened, I shrugged my embarrassment off and led Tali down to the next elevator, the one to the Normandy's docking bay. "You don't need to thank me for getting you to the clinic. I hate people without a decent amount of civil courage, I couldn't just ignore you." I disregarded the questioning glances the C-Sec officers threw at us and hit the key activating the elevator door. It opened and we stepped in.

"It seems, not many people think the way you do." Tali said, a dry note in her voice.

I had to laugh. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Most people would probably think I'm crazy. Sadly, I guess, what I deem to be civil courage, my philosophical outlook, isn't the norm around here." I shook my head in frustration and activated the elevator. "Seriously, though. There's got to be more guys like me out there. The problem is, they don't attract as much attention as the bad ones."

Tali thought about it for a moment as we started our ascent. "I guess you have a point. Dr. Michel helped me without hesitation," she agreed, although she still seemed indecisive. "Still, I am in your debt, you saved my life. I would have made it to the clinic on my own, but I'd have been helpless against those thugs."

She was right. With the way things were getting mixed up, there was no means of predicting what could have happened had things gone differently. "Alright, refusing your thanks would be impolite, and, either way, I'm very glad I helped you." The elevator came to a stop and we entered the docking bay. Stopping in front of the breathtaking site of the Normandy, I turned around and spread my arms. "More importantly, this is the ship you are going to stay on." I broke out in a grin as I saw Tali's awe permeate her body.

"She's so beautiful," she whispered, her voice stricken with admiration.

"Isn't she?" Staying on the Normandy was at least as much of a dream come true for me as it must have been for her. Tali had been living her life on a cramped, over-aged starship. Before coming to this reality, I hadn't dared to dream of being able to experience enjoyable space travel in my lifetime. I probably had a good understanding of exactly how she felt right now.

"Well, let's board her. Dr. Chakwas is waiting for me," I finally broke the spell and walked down the gangway leading to the Normandy's airlock. Tali lingered a little longer, then followed me. Stopping in front of the interior airlock, I wondered if it would open if I pressed the touch pad on its side. I assumed it had at least DNA recognition. There was no way you could just enter an Alliance stealth frigate without showing any kind of authorization. Only one way to find out. I shrugged and hit the panel. It started blinking red, but then turned green.

I guess Anderson had Chakwas enter my medical data into the ship's database already. Lucky me.

I started to wonder how exactly the ship had checked my authorization. It couldn't simply have been finger prints. Perhaps the panel had a built-in DNA analyzer? But the Normandy's characteristic computerized voice interrupted my musing, telling us to stand by and that decontamination was in progress.

The blue force-field passed through the room, and us as well. It felt funny. My hair stood on end and a tickling sensation came over me. A smile tugged at my lips. Feels as if I touched something electric.

The decontamination finished and the airlock opened, letting us in.

Again, Tali was impressed by the Normandy. She didn't say anything, and neither did I, but as with all Quarians, it was very easy to read her body language. When we reached the CIC, I expected Pressly to stop and interrogate us, but he merely threw us a quick glare and turned back to whatever he was working on. I figured he was calculating space routes, being the Normandy's navigator.

The guards at the stairs didn't take much notice of us either. For a moment it startled me, but then I discarded my worries. If there was going to be trouble, we would notice it soon enough. We made it down to the second level, and from there, to the officers' quarters. Stopping in front of one of the empty ones, I opened the door and looked at Tali.

"Well, here we are. I'd stay and keep you company for a bit longer, but I'm sure you are tired and I have to hurry to the med bay anyway, so I'll leave you to yourself for now. "

"I do feel exhausted." She wriggled around uncomfortably. "I don't know whether I'll find any sleep, though. This ship is so eerily quiet, it's almost as if the engines aren't even running. On the Flotilla that would be a sign of trouble..."

" Old habits die hard, huh?" I asked, but shrugged her doubts off. "I'm sure you'll get used to it, eventually. And with all that's happened to you the last few days, I bet you are going to fall into your bunk, asleep before you know it."

"Maybe you're right..." Tali didn't sound convinced.

"I'm sure I am. Your body can only take so much stress, after all. Well then, I'll be going." I turned around and made my way down the hallway but stopped again. "Oh, before I forget it: I'm sure, Shepard is going to want to talk to you, when you wake up. Make sure everything is in order and stuff." I called out over my shoulder, " Also you might wanna wait with exploring the ship until after that. You could run into some awkward situations otherwise, since most of the personnel don't know yet that you're going to be part of the crew. But don't worry. They're good people. I have a feeling you are going to be accepted in no time. Especially the engineers, they are going to love you."

"You've got a point. I've had enough of people trying to throw me off their ship for the next months. I'll wait for the commander to contact me then,"

I resumed walking, raising a hand in recognition of her answer.

Now then. Onwards to Dr. Chakwas. I was eager to get an Omni-tool. Also I was interested in the gene-therapy. Was it going to hurt? I doubted it. That would be unfavourable in the long run. There were enough causes for trauma already in the life of a soldier, no need to add another one. Of course that didn't mean it couldn't be a painful process, after all it rewrote the whole body... I'd just have to wait and see. Soon enough I would be able to find out for myself.

Having arrived in front of the med bay, I opened the door and called out to Dr. Chakwas, who was again working on something at her desk.

"Hey, Doc. Captain Anderson told me you were ready?"

She turned around and greeted me. "Ah. Philipp. Yes, I have been waiting for you. Please, take a seat." Dr. Chakwas stood and picked up a small armband at her side. "I'm going to calibrate your Omni-tool before administering the first shot of the retro-virus. I can also show you how to calibrate it yourself, if you want. Then you won't need to come to me when the Omni-tool is out of sync, which will happen regularly, during the therapy."

I sat down at the couch closest to her desk and agreed. "Sure. I'm more of a 'do it yourself' kinda guy anyway."

"As you wish. Here, slide the Omni-tool on your non-dominant arm., then activate it by clicking on the small switch on its side. Later, when the tool is calibrated already, you can use its own sensor feed to recalibrate it, but for now I'm going to use my own Omni-tool's sensors."

I did as instructed and watched as the Omni-tool started to blink in quick succession and then activate, spreading the orange-golden glowing interface around my left forearm.

Chakwas activated her own Omni-tool and put in a few commands. Instantly, a menu screen popped out of my interface, showing shifting bars and graphics as well as a centered field with a percentage in it. Above it I read: "Receiving sensory data"

"Wiz," I grinned, feeling like a little boy on Christmas Eve. Soon my very own military grade Omni-tool would be calibrated and ready for use!

"In addition to the retro-virus-therapy I'm going to put you on a special diet," the doctor explained, while the Omni-tools shared data. "Your body is going to need a lot of nutrition over the next few weeks. Especially a lot of protein, in order to build up the muscle you are going to need if you want to be able to keep up with the team. I have added an appropriate nutrient program into the cooking unit at the mess. Also, you are going to receive one injection every twelve hours for two weeks. The gene-therapy is going to change your body rapidly, though without pain, but the injections have to continue until the major changes are done. Interruption of schedule could result in negative mutations." She looked up from her Omni-tool and checked that I was listening. Which I was. Intently. "The first changes should be the correction of your minor injuries and handicaps, your shortsightedness, for example. When that happens, you are going to see black spots in your field of vision. When you do, immediately go to your cabin. Blindness is going to follow shortly after the first symptoms. You will be confined to the bed for roughly four hours until your vision comes back. All of the other changes will happen without physical impairment. The visual correction is going to happen very soon, so I doubt you are going to have trouble with the training I'm sure Captain Anderson arranged for you." Chakwas chuckled," At least none originating from the therapy."

I nodded. That sounded nice and comfortable. Much less painful than a gene therapy in the Marvel comics. "Are there any possible side effects?"

"Yes. After sight correction, your vision is going to be very sensitive. This could lead to headaches ranging from a slight, dull pain to fully fledged migraine attacks. Mood swings might also occur. There is a chance of muscle malformation, but that only occurs in about one in a million cases. I still have to inform you of it, since the therapy I'm giving you, isn't completely tested." She paused as a new window popped up on my screen saying that the data exchange was completed and the calibration could begin.

"Other than that, nothing. I'm going to start the calibration now. By now it's nothing more than letting the Omni-tool adjust to the data it received from my own one." Chakwas again did something on her Omni-tool and mine started to flicker. After a short while, the holographic emitter deactivated itself, while the armband was still blinking. Deactivating her own Omni-tool, she looked at me. " This is going to take a few minutes. The first calibration is always the longest. Do you have any more questions?"

I shrugged. "Nothing, except how do you activate the Omni-tool without pressing a button later on?"

"It's simple," the doctor explained," You just have to activate the integrated brainwave scanner and tell it to wait for input. Then think whatever you think when you want to activate the Omni-tool and the scanner will pick up on your brain waves. Afterwards, it's going to prompt you to repeat the order, but without intent to activate the Omni-tool. After that it will activate whenever you repeat the command."

"So that means the Omni-tool isn't going to activate in the middle of combat if I choose: " Dreck!" as a command?" I smirked.

Dr Chakwas shook her head and looked at me ironically. "Just how old are you?"

"Currently? I guess somewhere around nine.," I tried to answer as solemn as a judge, but couldn't keep a straight face and broke into laughter. "Sorry, I'm just in such a good mood right now."

"Don't worry, you are not the first to ask me something of that line," Chakwas said with dry amusement in her voice. " It appears it's something young recruits have in common. No, the tool would not activate in combat. Unless you want it to. The scanner is accurate enough to pick up the difference in intent. Hence you have to repeat the command without wanting to open the Omni-tool during set-up."

"Oh. So the tool actually picks up on variances that small. Wiz. Impressive software," I said

"Indeed. I still remember the times when we had to put in all kinds of uncommon commands in order to avoid slip ups and still had to hope no one else had had the same idea." Chakwas smiled. "That caused some amusing accidents." She checked my Omni-tool. "The calibration should finish any second..." My Omni-tool beeped loudly, then the interface activated again, this time fitting to my arm a lot better. Chakwas reactivated her own Omni-tool and did a quick scan. "Sync rate of 95 percent," she nodded, " That should do for now. Try activating something on the control panel."

I did and everything worked fine, so we continued setting up my mental command to activate the Omni-tool interface. Chakwas also showed me how to calibrate the Omni-tool myself. It wasn't complicated. All I had to do was start a biorhythm scan and let the Omni-tool adjust to its data.

After that, Chakwas gave me the retro-virus injection. A burning sensation spread throughout my body, followed by a tingling and finally subsiding into something more subtle... probably one of those feelings where you expect to feel something and hence do, even if there is nothing to feel.

I shuddered from the tingling. "How long 'til the first corrections will occur, exactly?"

"About three hours. Together with the visual correction, you should be able to start your training tomorrow."

Then I still have a few hours before I go blind, good.

"I think I'll get used to the Omni-tool for now. Ah, is there any way to enter the extranet from the Omni-tool, on this ship? A router, leading the signals to the comm buoys?"I asked Dr. Chakwas.

"There are several access points on the ship. You will have extranet access everywhere on the Normandy. Your bursts will also have high priority, since we are on a military spaceship."

Oh, right. The extra net worked by sending FTL pulses piggyback through the Mass Relay network. And those bursts were sorted by priority.

"Good to know. Thanks, doctor. That's about it, isn't it?" I stood up and yawned. I felt tired. The actions of the day were catching up with me.

"Yes, it is." Chakwas said, "It would be best if you ate something now. I'd come with you, but I still have some medical reports to file."

"Is that so? Well, I'm getting tired. I guess I'll follow your advice, get something to eat and then retreat to my cabin to relax a bit. By the way, what kind of stuff does the cooking unit in the mess have?

"Nothing exceptional," Chakwas smiled. "If you're thinking of a real meal, then you will be disappointed. It's a nutrient mash, but not a bad one. You can compare it with porridge. Yours will be a bit denser than the others, but other than that, it's the same."

I shrugged. Porridge, huh? I could live with that. Better than the space food from our times.

"The military didn't bother to install a real kitchen into this deep cover stealth frigate, I reckon? Brilliant move." I shook my head, my voice full of sarcasm.

Chakwas chuckled. "No, they didn't. I guess they didn't want to go to the expense."

"Right. Because after the millions and millions they poured into the ship itself, a few thousand credits were far too much." I shook my head again. Those nutcases. "But what can we do? Bitching isn't going to change anything." I shrugged," Well then, I'll see you around, Doctor."

After I tried the nutrient porridge, which really wasn't all that bad, I went down to the officers' quarters and lay down in my bunk. I activated my Omni-tool, which responded perfectly. Smiling, I went through the options and finally found what I was looking for. The possibility to change the interface to two-handed mode. I pushed the button and the interface changed accordingly. Now it wasn't fixed to my arm, but hovered in front of me, the holographic emitter simply throwing it into the air.

The next thing I did, was bring up the extranet browser. I put in two searches and started checking on progress in human science and philosophy since the twenty-first century. The results where partly exhilarating, partly hilariously sad. Philosophy had reached interesting depths and heights, especially concerning biotics, but at least from what I could gather from this first scan, the basics where still the same as back home. It all had simply shifted from a purely human perspective, to incorporate multiple species and space faring. Well, maybe that was to be expected. Maybe I'd find more diverse opinions if I checked for extraterrestrial philosophies. Right then though, I was more interested in the results for my second search.

Physics, and natural science in general, seemed to be pretty much the same as philosophy. There had been some interesting breakthroughs in the early years. But, from the point where humanity discovered the prothean database on mars, almost all research differing from what was learned there had been abandoned. At least officially. I had no clearing for military information yet, so I couldn't be sure about what the Alliance had been doing since its formation, but I couldn't, and wouldn't, believe that they would just rely on Mass Effect technology and not look to improve possible alternatives. Especially since they had to have been close to finishing the warp drive by then.

Back in 2012, Harold White had proposed the third update on the warp-theory since the discussion had been brought up. That changed the scientific outlook on it from "friggin' impossible" to "actually promising." Even given the bad press about it afterwards, since he wasn't allowed to say anything about the technology itself, the military had to have been pressing on like crazy.

I scratched my head. I guess I'll have to talk with Anderson about all this, when he is counselor. I'll have to get the highest clearingpossible. IF he is going to become counselor. But Shepard didn't seem to like Udina terribly much and she does seem to be pretty Paragon, so that shouldn't be the problem."

All of that still lay far in the future. For now I had to get through the training Anderson had in store for me. And after that, we would have to beat Saren. Then I could start thinking about what to do to prepare for the Reapers' full invasion.

I deactivated my Omni-tool and stared up at the ceiling. Now that things had calmed down for the day, even though I tried to resist it, I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in my home reality right now. I had been ripped out so suddenly. I bet there weren't even traces of any kind left, nothing to indicate that I was still alive. Right now, my twin brother and my friends where probably wondering where I was. If it had been during semester break, they might have assumed I had shut myself in my apartment to continue writing my novel. But back home the semester wasn't over yet. And it wasn't even the weekend. Maybe my brother already went over to my place to check on me, only to find an empty apartment with no sign of my whereabouts, whatsoever. Maybe he had called our family, asking whether I had said something about coming home. But they wouldn't know anything either. I sighed. They probably suspected something was wrong. In a few days they would report me missing. And then, in half a year, I'd be declared dead. And none of them would ever know what had happened to me. Desperation welled up inside me. Pain. I couldn't allow that. I couldn't take that. Simply thinking about it, was driving me insane. But what can I do?! I myself don't even know how or why I ended up here to begin with! I gripped my head with both hands and tried to subdue the panic inside me. I had to find a way back. I didn't much care about returning to that world itself. But my family and friends... I had to let them know what happened. At the very least, I had to find a way to contact them. If I didn't, I wouldn't be able to live with myself.

"But how am I going to do that? How?!" I exclaimed frustratedly. In the end, I most likely wouldn't even live to see the Reaper invasion.

I took a deep breath and tried to get rid of my tension. This was getting me nowhere. I was thinking too much again. Besides, I would have to lay off all that at least until Saren was dealt with, anyway. I'd have to research a way to travel between alternate realities, or at least exchange data between them. But, even if one assumed that it was actually possible to, say, recreate the circumstances leading to my transportation from my home reality to the mass effect reality in a controlled environment. Right now there just wasn't the time I needed, to do that.

In the two years between 'Mass Effect' and 'Mass Effect 2,' I would find a way. I would retreat to a silent, solemn place and concentrate on my studies. Of course, I'd also prepare for the invasion. But my main focus would be the exchange of data between realities. Yes. That's what I'm going to do. I'll find a way then... I have to.

Finally I was able to relax a bit, because I had found a plan, for now. Something I could set my mind on. Batten down the hatches, Saren! I'm gonna crush you in record time!

Abruptly, my Omni-tool gave off a sound and activated the holographic interface in front of me. A message appeared on it: "To all Members of the Normandy SR1 Crew. Captain Anderson is relieved of Command of the Normandy and the ship is assigned to former Commander and henceforth Spectre Shepard effective immediately. All crew have until tomorrow morning, six o'clock Standard Earth Time, to reassemble and prepare for take-off. Signed, Fleet Admiral Hackett."

Aha. So we were going to take off tomorrow morning, not immediately, as in the game. I shrugged. I had expected that.

Not knowing what else to do, I got up to wander the ship. I had an interesting talk with Engineer Adams, who, after I told him I joined the crew, started explaining the Mass Effect Drive enthusiastically after only a little prompting. On the question of how exactly the Mass Effect was able to change the speed of light in its Radius of Effect, he couldn't give a definite answer though. Apparently not even the Asari scientists had much of a clue about that, but the most popular theory was that through the Mass Effect, it was possible to "bleed" gravitational and electromagnetic properties of the hyperspace into normal space. That thought gave me the creeps. It sounded like the scientific equivalent of forcible rape. And it got me thinking. In the initial plot for Mass Effect, dark matter and dark energy were supposed to be the reasons behind all the shit that went down. The Reapers were supposed to somehow be 'fighting' against it to counteract the space-dilatation effect of dark energy. How one fought against a physical effect was beyond me, however. Anyway, that had been scrapped at some point, possibly because it not only sounded like, but actually was, bollocks. Now, what if the problem wasn't dark matter, dark energy or dark anything, but actually the use of element zero? Engineer Adams doubted the use of element zero would have any negative side effects. After all, for at least fifty thousand years, it had been used and the universe was still intact. But what if it wasn't? The way he described it, the effect of element zero went against every law and principal of physics, even the most basic ones. I didn't say it to him, because how would that have sounded, but what if the reality in which I got sucked into was actually growing more and more unstable? Could that maybe have been the reason why I ended up here in the first place?

Well, there's a happy thought...

Forcibly stopping my thoughts again, I shook my head and had to laugh. I really was paranoid. Here I was in a reality soon to be attacked and ravaged by a super advanced machine race and I was worrying about reality stability. As if the reapers wouldn't suffice on their own. Deciding that I had had enough chances to think up nonsense for the day, I went back to my cabin to go to sleep. I had been tired since I had been finished with Chakwas and, even if that interlude of panic and despair earlier had woken me up a little, by now I was pretty much spent. No wonder my mind was thinking up crazy thoughts. A short check of my Omni-tool showed that it was 11 pm Standard Earth Time. Normally I would have stayed up a bit longer, but I would have to get up early tomorrow, and besides, the symptoms for the visual correction could have kicked in any minute now, so I went to bed. Apparently that was a good decision, not even five minutes after I closed my eyes, I drifted into sleep.


	5. The Training begins

 

**The training begins**

The next day I opened my eyes to a blurry, unidentifiable cabin. I awoke instantly. All my surroundings were out of focus. I squinted with bleary eyes What was going on? Where … where was I?

Groaning, I sat up. "Damn it. why is everything fuzzy?"

"It seems your eyes haven't completely readjusted. Always the first side effect in a gene alteration therapy."

There stood a figure next to me, tall and oddly disproportionate. And that voice... at once the memory of the last day hit me. Mass Effect! Eden Prime! The Citadel!

I sighed inwardly. For a second there, I had thought I was back home...

I shook my head. Get a grip on yourself, Philipp. I looked around again and noticed that things appeared just a tad bit clearer. The person who had just spoken to me had to be Garrus. He was getting ready to do whatever he did first thing in the morning. My guess was calibrations.

"Yeah. And of course my eyes modification isn't finished when I wake up. Murphy's Law still applies." I got my legs out from under the covers. "What're you doing up so early, Garrus? It is early, isn't it?"

Garrus did this weird turian shrug where the shoulders rolled more than they shrugged. "I guess so. It's 6 o'clock Standard Earth Time, if I'm not mistaken."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's fairly early. Do you have a routine already? I guess you Turians are a disciplined bunch, huh?"

Garrus cackled. "Most Turians are. I wouldn't necessarily call me disciplined though. Despite my father's constant attempts to beat it into my skull."

I smirked at that. If the homecoming comic was any reference, his father had been extraordinarily strict.

"Since that Mako I saw in the cargo area can always use calibration, I thought I'd give it a check. Calibration always helps me relax. And think. Besides, it's not like I've got anything else to do until we find Dr. T'Soni."

I had to suppress a laugh as I got up, blinking all the while. "In other words, you're going to keep calibrating the thing until we're there?"

I fumbled around until I found my locker and opened it. In there lay several stacks of clothes which I couldn't quite identify.

"I calibrated stuff a lot, back with C-Sec. It was the only time off I got from the paperwork." Garrus's voice had a thoughtful tone.

I grabbed one set of clothing. The fabric felt unfamiliar and on the breast there was some kind of emblem. It probably was a uniform. "Good you're out of that pit, huh?"

Garrus grunted an affirmative. "You can say that again. All that red tape was killing me. You'd think, if you want to take down a criminal it wouldn't matter how you do it, as long as you do it."

I dressed myself, and looked over my back at Garrus's silhouette, thoughtfully. "That depends. I'm with you, if you mean it doesn't matter if you treat scum like scum. And if a rule doesn't work? Heck, outta the airlock with it."

"Exactly my thoughts!" Garrus said, a grim smile in his voice. "Who cares what happens to them anyway?"

I bent over, grabbing my pair of shoes and sat down on my bunk. "Sure. But... I wouldn't want to endanger innocents. No matter how big arse I could take down. And some of the rules are actually there for a reason. What good are we if we use the same methods as the guys we hunt?"

"Now you sound like my superiors," Garrus grunted, "always upholding the rules. If we do that, all that happens is we let the criminals get away!"

My sight had gradually cleared up until only a slight film lay over my field of vision. I could make out details now, the anger on Garrus's face, for example. I looked away and noticed several more clothes, a set of training clothes among them, in my dresser. I had indeed put on the uniform.

"You wanna join me for breakfast?" I asked Garrus, trying to diffuse the situation.

He stopped his rant for a moment. "Sure, why not?"

"Wiz."

I got up and we left the cabin together. On the way out, I noticed the slight vibration of the hull. We had undocked already. Too bad, I had wanted to see the Citadel from the cockpit when we did. I shrugged and discarded the notion. I'll get more than enough opportunity in the future.

Garrus returned to the topic at hand. "What I was saying is that sometimes you need to break the rules, even endanger civilians if you want to catch the bad guys."

"I'm not sure I agree with you. Is taking down one criminal worth the life of even one other person?"

Garrus scowled. "Some of them are."

I thought about that for a second. Pretty dark streak I had uncovered in Garrus there.

"Well... Let me put it this way: if you face a situation in which you have to decide whether or not to risk killing a civilian in order to get to a criminal, would you still be able to take that risk if it was a relative or close friend of yours? Because, most likely, he or she is, to somebody out there." I shrugged. "If you have no problem killing a friend to reach your goal, then please, do so, but in my eyes, you would really be just as bad as the guy you'd be trying to catch."

Garrus didn't answer immediately. Finally he breathed a deep sigh. "I'm just glad I'm with a spectre now. Maybe this time I'll be able to get the job done my way."

I pursed my lips. "Well, if getting the job done means endangering innocent people and your team, I doubt Shepard is going to like that idea. She doesn't seem like the kind of person to stop at nothing."

"I didn't mean..." Garrus said, but stopped. "I... I'll have to think about that."

We entered the elevator in silence.

When we sat down at the table in the mess area, our meals in hand, Garrus met my eyes again. He looked weirdly at me.

"What?"

"Why does a civilian join a military mission even though he knows he's probably going to die doing so?"

I opened my mouth, but closed it again and looked away. "Trying to divert the heat, aren't we?"

Garrus chuckled sarcastically. "Maybe."

"Is there anybody on this ship not asking themselves this question?"

"I doubt it."

I took a deep breath. Of course Garrus was right. "Let's just say I'm not your average civilian."

"Obviously."

"Yeah. Wouldn't have gotten on board otherwise, would I?" I laughed dryly.

"And your behavior isn't all that average, either."

I breathed a laugh. "Look, I have my reasons. Reasons you do not want to know. At least not right now. " I met Garrus's eyes. "Right now I'm not even sure I know them myself. But I'll tell all of you as soon as I do."

There was a short silence. I turned my eyes away and concentrated on eating.

"By the way, I've been wondering. People say levofood is so much different from dextrofood. but I'm having trouble believing it. Is it really dangerous to you if you eat dextrofood?"

Garrus glanced up at me and shrugged. "It's not so much different, really. Basically the percentage of dextro and levo acids is swapped. The taste depends as much on the food itself as with yours. It's not dangerous as much as a question of habit, really."

I thought about that for a second. "I guess that also means eating dextrofood doesn't necessarily have to kill you, does it?"

Garrus laughed. "No, that's just a stubborn rumor. At worst the food isn't digested." Garrus took a spoonful of his porridge-like breakfast and gulped it down. "More likely I'll miss essential levo acids since in your food there isn't the needed quantity of them."

I smirked. "So it's not what's in the food but rather what's not in it."

"Yeah."

"Thought so." I returned to eating my meal quietly.

After I finished. I stood up, put the bowl away and turned to Garrus who was just finishing himself. "Well, see you later. I need to get my shot and then talk to Shepard. I'm guessing she'll want to lay down my training plan for the next few weeks. Don't calibrate yourself to death."

"I don't think that's possible," Garrus grinned and stood up as well. "Good luck with Shepard. Something tells me she's going to put you through hell."

"Possible. Wouldn't be my first time, though. I'll handle it," I said, grim amusement in my voice. "I'm more worried about Kaidan, anyway."

After a quick injection and check up from a busy Dr. Chakwas, I crossed the mess hall to Shepard's Quarters. I again noticed the gentle vibrations of the engines reverberating throughout the ship. I stopped and concentrated on it for a moment. Wow. Tali was right. You almost didn't feel the difference between Engines under power and engines on idle running. I touched one of the walls. I guess now I understood Tali's fears a little better. Even without being used to audibly straining engines, this was somehow scary. How do you distinguish between running engines and dead engines? I shrugged the feeling off and knocked on Shepard's Door.

"Come in."

The door opened. I entered. "Hey, Shepard. I figured you'd wanna talk with me. Get the schedule straight and what not."

Shepard swiveled around in her work chair. "Yes. I'd have called for you in a moment. But it's Commander Shepard from now on. You're part of the Alliance military now."

I cringed. Yeah. I'd feared that. "So long as I don't have to address you as 'Sir' or 'Ma'am', I'm fine, Shep." Shepard's eyes chastised me. I sighed inwardly. "Commander Shep."

Shepard furrowed her brow. "No matter how much influence you seem to have on Captain Anderson, you're still a new recruit. And you WILL respect your superiors."

I nodded, trying to rein in my instinct to rebel against authority. I trusted Shepard. Well, as much as I could trust her without knowing her better than from the games. She deserved my respect. "Yes, Commander," I said, trying to sound honest. It came out more grudging than contrite. "You do realize that with you being a Spectre now, you technically hold no alliance rank anymore, don't you?

Shepard groaned. "This is going to be a problem, isn't it?"

I didn't answer but had to surpress a smirk.

"If you have such a problem with authority, then why did you enlist at all?" Shepard held up her hand before I got to answer. "No, wait. I don't want to know. You're only going to evade the question anyway. Take a seat."

I did as she asked and looked at her silently. I wasn't disappointed because there wasn't the familiarity between me and her that I expected after playing the games so often. Of course I wasn't... Who was I kidding?

"Captain Anderson ordered Lieutenant Alenko, Gunnery Chief Williams and me to make sure you're at least partially prepared for this mission by the time you see first action. "

She shook her head.

" I don't like it. Two weeks aren't going to be enough to make a soldier out of you. If you want to join the alliance so badly you should do so properly. Since I'm a Spectre now, I don't have to follow Captain Andersons orders anymore." Shepard looked at me. "However. I feel inclined to honour his wishes, provided you give me a reason to."

I crossed my arms. "A reason to train me."

"Yes"

I thought about it. I had to win Shepard's trust. But telling her about what I knew was dangerous. Not so much for me. At least not at this point. But it would influence Shepard's actions. There was no way to know if for the better or worse.

I took a deep breath.

"There is no reason. At least no logical one. All I can say is: Trust your instincts. And please, trust me."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. " Trust my instincts and trust you. That's it? No attempt to prove your worth?"

I shrugged. " We could argue all day, but neither of us can spare the time and ultimately, talk is cheap. How about this: You agree to train me, even though strictly speaking, it's beneath you and if I'm not ready in, say, two weeks, I jump ship at the next civilized stop."

"I never said it would be beneath me."

"You know what I mean"

Shepard gave me a once over.

"And if I then tell you to leave, you won't argue?"

"No. I won't"

She sighed.

"Fair enough. I'll give you a chance and put up with you. But if you're not ready in two weeks, you leave."

She relaxed in her chair. Apparently the subject was closed. I didn't press the matter.

"In the morning I will take you through the standards of military procedure and strategy. After that, Alenko is going to train you in hand-to-hand combat. And finally, in the evening, Williams will take you through all things related to firearms and your armor." Shepard looked at me, her face serious. Was there a bit of worry in there?"

"You have gotten yourself in a pretty dangerous situation. Not only for yourself, but also for your companions. Take this seriously."

I rolled my eyes. "Anderson gave me the this-is-serious-shit talk already, Shepard."

Shepard furrowed her brow and started to reprimand me, but I cut that short. "Commander Shepard. I'll tell you the same thing I told the captain." I met Shepard's eyes, trying my best serious-expression face. "I know what's at stake. I know what I'm doing. This. Is. Not. A. Rash. Decision." I leaned back and turned my straight stare into a glare. "And I'm twenty-two, not twelve. So stop babysitting me and instead get to teaching me what I need to know. Commander."

We held each others' glares for a minute. I didn't want to come off as too renegade, so I broke eye-contact first. Shepard held the silence for a moment longer, then continued by putting me up-to-date on all the military talk, which hadn't changed all that much from the twenty-first century. It was a lot, though, so I called up my omni-tool and started to record our conversation. I'm not much for taking notes. Things got more interesting when the Commander got to the actual tactical stuff. Soon enough a problem crystallized itself. I had always been interested in strategy – not only through games – and had developed my very own personal view on tactical and strategical matters, which starkly contrasted with general military procedure. Careful and orderly weren't the kind of properties you could attribute my style with. Chaotic and shocking were more along the lines of my preferences.

My out-of-the-way solutions would serve me well in most situations I was going to face as a special agent, though, so we quickly found a suitable compromise. I was going to be very sick of having to reel myself in while my drill continued, but I'd get over that. Eventually.

Anyway, discussion had always been a strong asset of mine. With this lesson being one-on-one, there was no way I was going to just listen and let myself be flooded with information. And as unorthodox as this procedure was to military doctrine, Shepard seemed to have almost as much fun as I did. I'm a bare-knuckle opponent in discussions but I honestly wanted to learn all I could and Shepard was more than a match for me.

Time flew by. Finally I got a chance to get some porridge for myself. I didn't meet any of the 'team'-team, but talked to some of the lesser known, unnamed crew, who were very much named, as it happens, in reality. They were wary at first and a fair bit uneasy about a civilian joining the game, but I got them to loosen up easily enough. What's with this nonsensical need to protect anyone not part of the military, anyway? It was my own decision... They shouldn't beat themselves up about it so much.

I finished eating, changed clothes and went looking for Kaidan. He wasn't standing around in front of his locker pretending to be useless, so I took a wild guess and went down to the training area. Indeed he was there working out. The room was medium large. On one side stood a low bench, a second one stood perpendicular to the first and sported a bench-press. Around it and along the walls was the typical machinery you see in your average gym. The only difference was that they didn't use weights but flat bars and plates which, I guessed, had element zero generators in them. Using the mass effect for workouts, huh? Hey, why not. The middle of the room was occupied by a Japanese-style martial arts mat.

Kaidan stood beside the bench, a bottle of something in his hand, his torso bare and sweat-covered. Damn. That guy had abs. It wasn't the inflated muscles of a bodybuilder, though. Neither the thick and deformed bands you get from daily labour. Kaidan had lean and efficient muscle. Body weight training. That told me something positive about the training he was going to put me through. I didn't much like weight training. Using your own body weight was almost always more efficient and did less damage to yourself.

Kaidan noticed me entering the room. "About time. I was going to get you if you hadn't gotten here in a minute."

I shrugged. "Shepard and I lost track of time for a bit. I liked the topic. Also she had to get something out of the way first."

Kaidan opened his mouth to say something, his eyes pensive. I rolled my eyes and interrupted him before he could say something. "I swear, if I hear one more person trying to make me realize what a stupid idea it was to sign on for this as a civilian!"

Kaidan laughed wryly. "I guess you've been getting that from everyone on board, haven't you?"

I returned the smile, though bitterly. "And then some."

"Try to look at it from our point of view. If you don't manage to keep up with the boarding team and you die, your death is going to be on us. All of us." Kaidan put the bottle away.

I winced. Yeah. I didn't want to think about that one. "I know. I also know that it would be the smart choice to lean back and let the professionals handle the situation." I shrugged a shoulder. "But I guess I never was one for the smart choices in life.

Kaidan barked a laugh. "I see that already."

His countenance set and he joined me on the mat. "I see you already took off your shoes. Good."

I looked down and realized he was right. I hadn't even noticed it. Funny. "Looks that way."

"You'll do a short warm-up and then I'm going to check your reflexes and instincts. I'd teach you a real style, but we only have a few weeks before your first mission so we'll have to improvise."

I nodded. "Figures. By the way, what kind of martial arts did they teach you in the N7 program?"

"A mixture of several. Mostly following the principles of fighting a stronger opponent. Just about anything you're going to be confronted with on the field, short of a salarian, is going to be able to whip your ass, if you're not careful. Gene treatment or not."

I frowned pensively. "So, redirecting forces. Aikido? Wing Tsun? Jiu jitsu? That kinda stuff?"

"As well as Boxing, Krav Maga and just about every possible martial arts out there, be they of human origin or not," Kaidan said. "The Alliance military has taken great care to make sure we are as thoroughly prepared as possible."

I whistled appreciatively. "Impressive. Though that line does sound a wee bit like an advertising slogan."

Kaidan laughed. "It does, doesn't it? The point is, if I were to formally train you we'd need a few years, not weeks. And even than you wouldn't be N7. That takes a lot more than just some dry training."

"Meaning you are going to pummel me until my body learns how to survive and I develop some kind of style on my own." I shrugged dismissively.

Kaidan nodded. "Basically, yes. Get ready."

I focused my mind and got into position. The feet at shoulder width in a lunge, knees slightly bent, arms lifted, ready to block. Kaidan's stance resembled my own, in a way, but there was an air of professionalism to it, that I knew I didn't have. The analytical part of my mind was impressed, nothing like this was ever hinted at in the games. Then Kaidan started moving, or -rather suddenly- my guts connected with his fist. Painfully. The punch had enough force to lift me into the air a few centimeters and send me flying. I landed on my butt, staring in surprise. What had just happened?

That unnerving analytical part of me jumped around giddily and full of glee. It played the last two seconds – the action hadn't taken more time then that – back in my mind in slow motion. Had there been a blue aura around Kaidan just before he moved? Wait a sec. Had he given me a biotic sucker-punch?

I groaned and shakily got up on my feet. "Drek. I didn't think you'd take the beating-me-to-a-pulp part that serious."

"In a fight your opponent isn't going to make nice with you either." Kaidan's voice had a distinctive, sing-song quality to it, making it crystal clear that he enjoyed seeing me on the floor. "If you want to be ready for action in two weeks, you have to do it the hard way."

"Yeah. I get it. Just take care not to break anything that isn't going to be fixed by med-gel and Dr. Chakwas magical abilities, would you? That'd kinda defeat the purpose of you preparing me for action."

Kaidan nodded his head in response.

I got back into position, centered my mind and met Kaidan's eyes. This time, I was prepared. I did not get distracted.

It didn't help.

But I got up again. And again. And again. You get the picture. What do all those bodybuilding guys say? No pain, no gain. Well, if that saying held true, in backwards implication, I would experience a hell of a lot of gain with Kaidan's Training. At some point my consciousness blurred into something closely resembling unconsciousness. Do you know that feeling you get after completely, utterly overexerting yourself? When you start to feel light and you're only barely conscious of your actions? That was how I felt.

When Kaidan finally stopped, it took me a whole minute to notice. I came back into reality slowly at first, but then the pain all over my body jerked me into full awareness. I stumbled and nearly fell, barely managing to stay upright, supporting my body on my knees.

Kaidan was breathing in a controlled but accelerated manner. He bobbed his head, hair glistening with sweat, a look of respect in his eyes. "Good for a start. You didn't break. You just might make it through the next two weeks."

I didn't have enough breath in me to reply.

Kaidan looked up at me and gestured to a bottle on the training bench. "For you. Figured you didn't have one prepared."

Breathing heavily through both nose and mouth, I stumbled over to him and grabbed the bottle. I tried to open it and managed on the third try. Then I drank. I have never had a more satisfying, better tasting drink before. It was just plain water, but right then it tasted like ambrosia. I downed the whole bottle in one go. After that I felt somehow human again. I looked at Kaidan as he turned around leaving the room, taking his things with him. "Get a bit of rest and something to eat. Williams is going to be waiting for you."

I stumbled out of the training room and into the hangar bay. And directly into something small, light and squishy, eliciting a surprised outcry. I tumbled back and tried to make out what poor someone I had battered into the wall of the narrow corridor. It was a female someone. In a purple and black enviro-suit. I apologized but it came out more as a grumble than an actual sentence.

"Sorry, Tali, didn't see you there," I repeated myself, more clearly this time.

Tali gathered her composure. "It's alright. I'll live." She looked me up and down and something in her body language changed. "You look beat up. Is it the training Captain Anderson talked about at the embassy?"

I grinned and scratched my head. Or rather, I scratched my neck, since it was too painful to lift my arm up any higher. "Yeah. That's about it. Kaidan gave me the beating of my life. I think he's enjoying it. More than he`s supposed to." I blinked sweat out of my eyes. "And I need a shower. I'm swimming in sweat over here. Aaaand I need to hurry because I have to get my injection, something to eat, so I don't fall over and then get back down here for my weapons training with Ashley." I grinned dryly. "Nice bumping into you. We gotta do this again."

After a quick shower, I felt much better. Already the pain from Kaidan's beating was subsiding and, interestingly enough, so was the muscle ache. Impressive that the retrovirus was able to alter my body this fast.

I made my way to the mess area and felt a surge of endorphins course through me. This was a change I could cope with. The elevator opened and I left the cabin with a spring in my step. Screw Destiny, I was going to enjoy this unforeseen odyssey. At the table I met Tali again. Smiling I stopped in front of the cooking unit and entered the combination to prepare my meal. "Long time no see, Tali. What a surprise to bump into you again so soon."

"At least this time you aren't as physical," Tali snickered.

I laughed. "Yeah. Sorry again, about before. I wasn't quite up to the mark yet." I took up the bowl of food and a spoon that emerged from the glazed opening in the middle of the unit and sat down next to Tali. I started to eat and watched as she fiddled around with a tube coming out from her helmet. On the table lay two thicker tubes with labeling on them.

"So, for how long does the migrant fleet's supply of nutrient paste stretch?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"A few weeks," Tali said as she connected one of the nutrient paste tubes with the long tube connecting to her mouth piece. "Generally, if we stay on pilgrimage longer than that we either contact the fleet for more supplies or make use of the purifying mechanism on our suits."

I took a spoon full of porridge – which tasted fantastic, as hungry as I was – looking her up and down. "Inside your suit? Where exactly do you put a purifying unit in that tight fitting suit?"

Tali giggled. "Not inside the suit. It's in the ingestion tube."

"Oh," I answered. "That's logical."

"Yes." We ate in silence, for a minute. "You seem to be a lot better now," Tali broke the silence.

"Yeah. The retro virus is already strengthening me. I'm glad it is. Without that, I'd probably be lying on the floor of the training room, unconscious and unresponsive for the next week." I smirked at that picture. That would have been amusing, breaking down on my first day.

"You seemed unconscious enough to me." I couldn't see the smirk, but it was definitely there, audible in Tali's voice.

"I did, didn't I? I just hope it's going to be better tomorrow. Speaking of getting better. Get some sleep last night?"

Tali shrugged. "More than I expected. Less than I needed. I'm still getting used to the silence of the engines."

"Yeah, I imagine with the age of the ships in the flotilla, you're used to a steady background noise. It's a miracle you are still able to keep the things working as it is."

"For a human, you know a lot about quarians." Tali sounded pensive. "Did you meet one on a Pilgrimage before?"

I thought about how to answer that one, for a moment. "Not exactly. I just did my homework. And quarians have always been intriguing to me. All I know is stuff I read, heard, and deduced after filtering out all the drek that's discriminating against you."

Tali dislodged an empty nutrient tube and connected the second one. "That's already much more than most people do. But why are you so interested in my people?"

I shrugged. "Good question. Never really thought about that. I've always been something of an outcast myself. By my own volition at times, but nevertheless an outcast." I sighed. "I guess that's made me sympathetic to your situation."

"Having a rough childhood doesn't make you understand our situation" Tali interrupted with scorn in her voice.

I hastily lifted my hands. "Hey, calm down. I said, 'sympathize', not 'understand'. There's a difference. And don't be so sure it's impossible to understand you. It's very easy to understand the injustice with which galactic civilisation treats your people. One just has to use one's head." I shook my head. "Anyway, that's not the point. I've been interested in seeing the picture how it really is and not how the public tries to draw it. That inevitably led me to inquire about your people."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that. I've just heard the phrase 'I understand how you feel' so often since I've left the migrant fleet. And nobody ever meant it." Tali sighed.

I looked at her sincerely. "Well, I do. Or at least I try to."

Tali nodded hesitantly. I imagined her smiling benignly under her helmet. It fit her body language.

"Also I find those suits you wear aesthetically attractive." I grinned, lightening the mood. Tali started fiddling around with her ingestion tube. "Oh? Is that so? I - I guess they do stand out."

Was I seeing what I thought I was seeing? Was Tali blushing? I had to suppress a chuckle.

"And, you wear your heart on your tongue. That's very refreshing. I think we're going to get on with each other awfully well." I finished my meal and got up to return the bowl to the cooking unit. "Anyway, I gotta go get my injection. It's almost time."

Tali stood up as well, having finished her nutrient paste a while ago. "I'll go back down to the engine room. Engineer Adams is teaching me a lot. He's practically radiating happiness at being able to talk about the Normandy. And it's an amazing ship."

I smiled. "I had that talk with him myself. Gotta find some time to join you two. I could get used to working with technology like that."

Tali tilted her head. "You're interested in technology?"

"I'm a physicist at heart. Though life has pushed me more into philosophy, as of late, but physics really isn't much different from that. I'll have to get up to speed again, though. I … missed out on the more recent science." I tried to evade the question of how much I actually knew about modern science. I lifted my hand as I started to move in the direction of the med bay. "See you. I'll see if I still have energy and time left after Williams is finished with me. Maybe I'll join you and Adams."

I opened the door to the med-bay as I heard the sound of the elevator doors opening. In the med-bay, Chakwas did a quick check up on me, finding that the retro virus was working splendidly and within parameters. For now there were no side effects to the experimental batch she was using on me. Without much fuss, she gave me the next injection and sent me down to Ashley.

I went down to Engineering and Storage. In the back of the garage, there was Ashley working on a rifle. Next to the Mako, Garrus kneeled, busy calibrating. Wrex was nowhere to be seen.

The Shooting range was fully activated and waited only for me. I came close and Ashley looked up, a visible frown on her face. "You're late."

"Kaidan took a big bite outta me. Had to take a shower and get something to eat to recuperate."

Ashley looked me up and down, then scoffed: "You sure you're able to take the training we have in store for you?"

I grinned wolfishly. "Do Turians have a stick up their ass?"

"Hey! I heard that!" Garrus threw an amused look over at the two of us.

Ashley chuckled. "Well, at least you've still got some spunk left in you. Can't have been that bad."

I shrugged and decided to get to the point. "You wanted to teach me about weapons and stuff."

"Yes. We'll start with the Phalanx." She took one of a group of cooling clips lying on the desk and handed it to me. "Here. Put rounds into the shooting targets until you have to change the clip. Try to hit the targets and get a feel for the weapon."

I shrugged. "Okay. I can do that."

I positioned myself and took aim with both hands. I know it's technically possible to hit something with a handgun one-handed, but I'm not stupid and I know I'm not that good a shot. I'm more the close-quarters combat type. I controlled my breathing and shot between breaths at a calm and concentrated speed. The first two rounds only barely hit the target, but after that I got the feeling for the gun and all the remaining shots hit their targets. The clip ejected and I let my concentration slip. Most of the hits weren't exactly close to the heart, but they weren't really bad either.

"You could have shot slower," Ashley said.

I nodded. "I wanted to get a feel of the recoil of sustained shooting."

"Your stance was good, though. Martial arts training?"

"Some.", I shrugged, "Nothing major, though. Never stayed with it long enough."

"Hm." Ashley cleared her throat. "Well, I'd say you're good enough with the pistol for now. We've got enough time to teach your body how to compensate the recoil." She grabbed an Assault Rifle. It was an M-8 Avenger. I grimaced. "Ugh. That reminds me. I forgot to get me a decent assault rifle. Guess I'll have to make do with the Avenger."

Ashley pulled up an eyebrow. "The Avenger is a reliable, battle-tested assault rifle."

"Yeah... It says so on the packaging," I said sarcastically. "Seriously, she's way to slow to lay down reasonable cover-fire and lacks the punch and precision of a tactical rifle like the M15-Vindicator or the Valkyrie, for that matter."

"Think you know all about weaponry, do you?" Ashley shot back but with a puzzled face. "What kind of rifle is the 'Valkyrie'? I've never heard that name."

I winced. Ouch. That's right, the Alliance developed the Valkyrie as a reaction to the Battle of the Citadel. Which was yet to come. Meaning Ash couldn't know about that particular rifle.

"Right. You couldn't. Because... it's classified! Forget I ever mentioned that rifle."

Ashley stared at me. "How do you know something classified?"

I began to sweat. Now I had maneuvered myself into a nice pinch. How was I going to get out of that?

"The... same way I know so much about up-to-date weaponry and technology. But that's classified, too, sadly." I breathed slowly in order to control the nervous smirk that was trying to march onto my face. Just go with it, Philipp!

I took the Avenger from her hands and cocked it. "Sorry about that. So. I know stuff about guns, but I've never held anything of the sort up until yesterday. If I have my stance terribly wrong and am going to hurt me, you or possible the both of us, tell me beforehand, will you?"

Ashley was flabbergasted for a second more, than visibly forced herself to relax and started going through the different shooting positions with me. We finished fairly quickly. Logically the stances aren't all that much different from a typical balanced fighting stance in martial arts. It's simply unpleasant to stand unbalanced when shooting anything. Not to mention stupid, from a scientific point of view.

When I knew how to properly stand, I aimed and shot a burst of rounds at one of the targets lined up before me. Without standing correctly.

The Avenger recoiled against my arm painfully.

"Hey!"Ashley exclaimed. "Why did I tell you how to shoot if you're going to ignore it anyway? If that had been a shotgun, you could have broken something!"

I rolled my shoulders, ignored her, and took the proper stance again. I aimed, this time with my feet planted steadily in a lunge, strong leg back and slightly leaning into the rifle. I pulled the trigger and three rounds hit the target in front of me squarely in the chest.

"I needed to know how it feels if I do it wrong."

Ashley huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "With your behavior, you're going to make a terrible soldier."

"I know." I smiled bitterly. "It wasn't my first choice either. But there's no other option. I need to be on this ship. On this team."

Ashley didn't answer.

By the time I had completed the strenuous, repetitive and boring weapons training, shooting, as well as maintenance, to Ashley's satisfaction, I didn't have much fight left in me. The easy banter from the beginning of the exercise was forgotten and what remained was a silent man, straining for concentration. It was always like that. When I reached my limits, the first I shut down, was communication.

Eventually Ashley got the hint , though, and let me off for the day. I nodded goodbye and took the elevator up to the crew deck. For a short moment I pondered taking a detour to the engine room, but as I was right now, I would hardly be a pleasure for anyone. Besides, I didn't even know whether Tali and Adams were still up. I took a shower again, which brought back at least some of my spirits, and returned to my cabin. Garrus was already asleep. He must have left the storage room sometime during my training. I undressed and fell into my cot, instantly asleep.


End file.
